The Vixen From District Five
by mgeherman
Summary: A third person limited point of view of Foxface's experience leading up to, and during, The Hunger Games. Foxface (named Roisin) is portrayed as a smart, surreptitious, sarcastic, quarrelsome teen who made one mistake that led her into The Games. Drama, Adventure, Action and even some Comedy are all wrapped up in this redhead's tale (or tail?).


Introduction

The goal of this story was not entirely to write about Foxface and her experience in the arena. The goal was for me to work on my narrative skills and to try to get used to writing in a third person limited point of view. This made it very challenging for me to write because instead of the usual first person "I did", I said", "I felt", etc. I had to rely a lot more on imagery. The arena forces much more inner monologue, and with third person limited point of view, and Foxface as the main character, it forces me to write in the style that I want to write my actual book. Again, this story and these characters are not mine. They are Suzanne Collins. If you haven't read her trilogy, I suggest you do so before reading this.

Foxface is my favorite opponent in The Hunger Games series primarily because of how Katniss perceived her. While writing this I kept true to all of the events that happened in the Hunger Games – not just what Katniss observed of Foxface's actions, but also what Katniss experienced in the arena (e.g.: how many days were spent in it, what the weather was like, etc.). I did use several lines from the book to make the story a little more interesting. I also tried to stay as true to the Foxface character as possible. I also added a few traits that I believed she would have as well. The beauty of writing for Foxface is that the writer has a lot of artistic freedom as well.

I've done some reading of Foxface fan fiction as well to see how other writers view her as a character and what backgrounds they have given her. Though I haven't read all of them, I would like to think that my interpretation of her is somewhat novel (no pun intended). If you wish to read a good first person point of view story on Foxface, read "A Fox's View". I really think that author does a great job of keeping true to the Foxface character, and the story is pretty close to the book.

I would also like to address that I did not go off of anything that was in the movie other than that which was actually in the book. For example, in the movie Foxface's real name is Finch. Also she has one line ithe movie supposedly, but I left it out. I decided th her name is Roisin because I don't like the name Finch. Also I am not entirely fond of the quote. I don't think Suzanne Collins would have cared either way.

In any event, this will probably be a hard read as opposed to the original because of its point of view. Feel free to criticize it because I'm going to need as much of it as possible in order for me to write my own book. Again, I tried to stay true to the character and the story's timeline as much as possible. So I hope you enjoy it.

M. G. E. Herman

The Vixen from District Five

Part I – A Blind Destiny

Chapter 1 – It Began With a Choice

The short, red haired teen clutched the diamond necklace and escaped from the jewelry store expeditiously and gracefully in the dark and cloudy the night. The alarm set off alerting the Peacekeepers that trouble was brewing in the area of the store. She quickly stuffed the necklace in the right pocket of her dark blue jeans which was matched by a black long-sleeved shirt and black tennis shoes. The teen quickly jumped in a garbage bin nearby and waited for the men in white uniforms to rush by. Making certain that they all had passed her, she slowly got out, minimizing the sound as much as she could. The route had been planned in her mind weeks before the heist. She accounted for every single variable that would come into play, right down to where she had to be at a specified time. At one minute and three seconds, the redhead scaled a gate that took her down the alley nearby.

Pacing herself so that she'd have the right amount of energy saved up, the redhead briefly stopped and hid in the shadows of the alley. She hunched down near a large cardboard box, counted to sixteen, and then two more Peacekeepers raced by, like she knew they would. She waited eleven more seconds and then scurried lightly across the street and into another alley. The teen made sure that she would avoid the orange light given off by the street lamps as much as possible. When she made it further down the alley, she hunched down again and waited for two more Peacekeepers to go by. These were not aware she abscond the necklace a short while ago, so the redhead waited twenty-eight seconds for them to pass. Then she took a left and briskly ran alongside the buildings. After making it down two blocks she took a quick right across the street ran past a building, and then turned right into another dark alley a quarter down the block.

The teen caught her breath and waited thirty-four seconds for two Peacekeepers to pass by. She then waited an additional twelve seconds, got out of the alley from where she entered and turned left. This time she was doing a full on sprint and made short, quick breaths. She then ran down three blocks. Halfway down the third block, she crossed the street and went straight into an alley. Then the she pressed up against a wooden fence that separated the alley in half. She listened for the faint sound of two Peacekeepers to walk by.

Something was wrong. They walked by five seconds sooner than she thought they would. This threw off the redhead's entire calculations, and she had no idea when to act again. She panicked and wondered if she should wait for the Peacekeepers to walk by again. Then the teen wondered if the other Peacekeepers would stay at their pace, or if they were off as well. She wasn't exactly sure what to do. She looked behind her and saw a metal staircase against a brick apartment building. The teen wondered if she should take the risk and climb it. It might make too much noise, but if she could make it to the roof, she could try to figure out another route. So, she sat down and froze.

"Come on, Roisin. You've done things like this before." she thought. Then she paused again and thought, "But this time the cost of failure is much higher."

Roisin had never been caught in her entire life of thievery. She started stealing when she was seven-years-old. It began with small things like candy. Then as the she grew older, the price of the items increased. This however, was the most valuable item she had stolen. It was the only diamond necklace in District 5, and once she became aware of it, the girl knew she had to come up with a plan before someone would buy it. This was more than the petty theft she was used to.

Roisin reasoned that the stairs would be too loud, and so she waited for the Peacekeepers to walk by again, hoping that the others would be walking according to how she had timed it out. When the footsteps went by she counted to six, scaled the fence and then counted to seventeen. From there she turned left and then went down two blocks. But before turning left into another alley Roisin heard from behind her, "Hey! Stop! You're violating curfew!"

"No!" Roisin thought as she went down the alley as quickly as possible hearing the Peacekeepers chasing her with a longer stride. She overheard one of them alert other Peacekeepers about her presence, and then she turned right down the street. Roisin's home was six blocks down and eight blocks to the right. Her heart raced rapidly, estimating that the percentage of success would now be twenty-two and decreasing every second as more Peacekeepers would try to catch up with her.

Roisin was mad at herself because she thought that all of the variables were counted for. Worse yet, she did not have a backup plan because that would involve even more things to take into account. So as she was sprinting, she looked down each alley trying to see if there was something that would obstruct the Peacekeepers' vision. Finally halfway down the fifth block she looked right when she noticed that it had a wooden fence for her to scale. So, she ran down the alley, jumped over it and heard the Peacekeepers behind her run past the alley.

Roisin was relieved and quietly caught her breath. But she wasn't certain where the other Peacekeepers were coming from. They all couldn't be after her because there had to be a few of them guarding other parts of the city, she reasoned. Roisin realized that her house was now one and one-half block to her left and still eight blocks in front of her. She heard footsteps getting closer to the side of the alley that she was in, so she scaled the small fence again. Two Peacekeepers paused for a moment near the alley.

"I'll check the alley. You keep going down the street, got it?" commanded one of them.

"Yes, sir!" replied the other.

"Trapped!" thought Roisin. She tried to come up with a plan as the man slowly got closer. She didn't think that running would be that great of an idea because it would alert the man of her presence just as much as staying in the alley would be. Then something came to her. Roisin reasoned that she could try to make it so that the Peacekeeper would be prone and knocked out. Then she would scale the fence again and sprint down several of the eight blocks that were left in front of her.

The Peacekeeper jumped over the fence with slight caution, and he stepped on Roisin's back. "Woah!" he yelled, as Roisin quickly used her body weight to cause him to fall forward as she stood up. The Peacekeeper fell on his face, and she scaled the fence quickly.

Roisin didn't hear if the Peacekeeper informed the others of her whereabouts. She didn't have much time to think about that. Crossing the street, she was now in the residential part of the city, in which there was more open space and variations of places to hide. Roisin was slightly familiar with her surroundings, but not to the point where she could come up with a safe route back to her house. When she got to six blocks away from her home Roisin saw a tree in front yard of a dark blue house that would be easy to climb and hide in for a few moments. So Roisin jumped up and did her best to climb up as high as possible. It was mid-Summer, so there were plenty of leaves to hide her.

The lights were out inside the house, and Roisin felt safe for the moment. She wondered how much longer she should wait in the tree and if she was safe from the Peacekeepers. She reasoned that they must know roughly where she is, but whether or not to look up the tree where she was well hidden was a different story. So Roisin thought that she was currently three blocks away from a much more recognizable neighborhood. All she had to do was sprint towards that area when the time had come.

After waiting for three minutes and forty-eight seconds, Roisin descended the tree and scurried across the three blocks where she came to a white house that she recognized. She went to the backyard and jumped the fence which had some red rose bushes mixed with pink and white ranunculus on the other side of it. She held in whatever pain she felt while the small branches and thorns scraped against her hands and face. Good thing she wore clothes that fit tight against her body.

Roisin crept out of the bushes carefully, crouched down and walked slowly next to the green house. Something was strange, though. She didn't hear any Peacekeepers. Aside from the gentle breeze that she felt against her scratched up face, there was no other sound. Could she have possibly out-witted them? Perhaps.

Roisin's house was three blocks ahead of her and one and one-half block to the left. She decided to make a plan. Once she crossed the street and press up against the backside of a gray house, she would turn right and go down a one block, putting her a mere half block from her house. At that point she would be run to the backside of a light blue house. From there she would sprint the remaining blocks to in front of her and then quickly turn left and sprint to her place. When she would get there she would be in her backyard, at which point she would climb up the oak tree next to her house. She lived on the second story and had left her window a small crack open. Then she would quietly go inside her room and gently shut the window. The plan was perfect.

So she executed it without flaw, except for the last part. When she made it to her backyard she gasped as she saw a tall man in a Peacekeeper uniform and helmet with a nightstick in his hand standing in the back of her red colored house.

"Hello, Miss Jainwynne. I've been expecting you." The man grinned widely, looking down at her. Roisin was paralyzed with fear. "Thompsin, come around to the back!"

A slightly shorter and fitter man came around the corner. "Hello, Roisin." The man also smiled. "Why, I bet you thought you were home free, in a literal sense. But we had been waiting here for quite some time." He turned his head to the other Peacekeeper and said, "How long has it been? Six minutes, Watters?"

"Thereabouts." Watters replied firmly, still glaring at Roisin.

Roisin cleared her throat while looking up at the two of them, "So you knew it was me for that long?" She replied trembling in fear.

"Of course." said Thompsin in a very haughty voice. "You see, there aren't too many redheads that are around five-foot three in this city. Once one of us got a really good description of you, we stationed several of us around a few houses in that are based on the direction you were heading and had short, red haired teens in them. There were only three in the area." He laughed, "Sorry, but if you had worn a hat of some sort you might have gotten away with this."

"Dammit!" Roisin thought, "How did I not consider that as one of the variables that needed to be accounted for?" She looked down in disbelief.

Watters stretched out his hand covered by a black glove. He rested the nightstick on his shoulder with the other. "I believe you have something that belongs to Maytah's Jewelry Store." he said in a matter of fact way.

Roisin let out a loud sigh and then threw the diamond necklace at him as hard as she could. Watters barely caught it against his chest. "Okay, Miss Jainwynne, let's not make matters worse." he said with a little anger in his voice.

"Worse? How on earth could they be worse? I know the consequences of my actions!" she screamed.

Just then a light turned on in the house and a short middle-aged woman with red hair opened the door. "Roisin, what's going on out here? Why are you outside at this time of night? You know it's past curfew."

"Oh, she knows," said Watters holding up the necklace for the woman to see it dangling before her. "And I'm pretty sure she knows that this is not a mere minor offense."

The woman's eyes widened and her jaw dropped open. Then she yelled, "Honey, get down here now!"

A man's voice yelled, "What? What the Hell is going on at this time of night?"

"Roisin is in big trouble!" she replied, still staring at the necklace. Roisin had not made eye contact with her mother since she came to the door.

"Trouble? What kind of trouble?" The man yelled.

"Oh, it's nothing too big," yelled Thompsin, "She just stole the only diamond necklace in the entire district." He laughed and Watters joined in. Anger rose in Roisin, but there was nothing she could do other than stew over it. She clenched her fists tightly.

"What?" the man raced down a staircase and to the back door with loud footsteps. He saw Watters holding the necklace and then turned to Roisin, who was still averting her amber colored eyes. "Roisin, what is this?"

Roisin let out a long, deep sigh. She raised her head, and looked at the man who was slightly taller than the woman and had graying hair. Then she said quietly, "Yeah, dad, I tried to steal the necklace."

His eyes widened, cocked his head and said in complete disappointment, "Oh, Roisin, what were you thinking?"

Roisin didn't respond to the question because the answer was obvious to him anyway.

Thompsin said, "Mr. and Mrs. Jainwynne, your daughter is going to have to come with us. Let's say you might not see her for a while." He put handcuffs on Roisin while Watters gripped her to prevent any attempts to escape. Then they took her away.

"Roisin!" her mother cried. Then she said nothing.

Then Thompsin and Watters walked by Roisin's side each holding an arm. The men walked with her several blocks until they got to a large, gray-bricked building that read in black letters "Detention Facility" on it. They sat her down in a chair. The room was brightly it. Roisin's eyes took a while to adjust to it. She stared at the floor tiles while Watters filled out some paperwork behind desk.

Thompsin sat down next to Roisin, turned his head to her and said, "You know what this means, don't you Miss Jainwynne?"

Chapter 2 – Embracing Fate

Roisin sat in a cafeteria in the detention facility. The girls were not as talkative or as loud as they usually were during normal days. There was a sober mood among all of them. Roisin tried her best to focus on eating and pushing what was on everyone's mind out of her head. That didn't last for long.

"The Reaping is today." said a short, blonde girl to Roisin as they sat next to each other in the cafeteria. They were seated separately from everyone else. The blonde wore a red top with black pants. Roisin was wearing a black top with white pants.

"Yeah, I've been looking forward to it." said Roisin to the girl in an extremely sarcastic way.

The blonde was put on the defensive, "Just trying to make idle conversation!" She then calmed down a bit and asked, "So how many times is your name in this year?"

"Thirty-eight, Alequinne. I've been here a little over two years. It was nineteen the year before, so next year it will be fifty-seven." She paused for a moment as if to do some quick thinking. "Given the amount of people in the detention facilities in the district and the severity of their crimes, I estimate that I still have less than one percent chance of getting reaped."

Alequinne looked down at her eggs and stirred them around a bit. She let out a sigh and said, "It's completely unfair what they do to us kids who committed a crime in this district." She slowly lifted up a bit of her eggs and took a small bite. Then she added, "Mine's in there twenty-seven times."

Roisin's eyes opened wide and nearly yelled, "That's how much they give to someone accused of battery!"

Alequinne looked down at her food again and said, "Yeah. It's amazing how they treat us, isn't it?"

"Considering that you were merely breaking up the fight, you're definitely getting screwed over here." Roisin paused for a moment and took a drink of her milk. "Well, the odds are more in your favor than mine."

"Yes, but if I make it to next year that puts me at sixty-four." replied Alequinne, still staring at her food.

"Fifty-four, actually." said Roisin still trying to comfort her friend.

"Yes, I suppose those ten slips will make a world of difference for me next year." she paused for a moment. "Eighteen can't come soon enough."

"Well, at least you have two years left. I'm sure you'll make it out safe. You'll still be under one percent. Given that I'm fifteen, I'll have my name in there ninety-five times when I reach eighteen. So you're slightly better off than me long-term if you think about it. I mean, that might push me over one percent."

"Let's hope that you're assumptions hold true." replied Alequinne. She added, "Do you think the Capital is aware that the odds are completely against us criminals?"

"If they do, they're obviously turning a blind eye to it." Roisin was clearly upset about the raw deal that they were given. "But I highly doubt that they suspect anything. We're supposed to lie about our backgrounds during the interviews for The Games, anyway."

Alequinne put down her fork and pushed her tray forwards, "I'm not hungry anymore. I can't get The Games off my mind." She crossed her arms, turned her head to Roisin and said, "All of this because I tried to break up a fight in public. I guess it's true when they say, 'No good deed goes unpunished.'"

Roisin pushed her tray forward as well. "I don't think I can eat anymore, either." She looked out the window past Alequinne. "I got what I deserved, being a kleptomaniac and all. This was bound to happen. There's no higher rush for me than stealing, and I eventually got caught."

Alequinne looked at Roisin and said, "Shame. You really could have been anything, you know? Hell, you could have probably run this whole district's power infrastructure. Maybe even come up with better ways to supply energy to the Capital."

Roisin gave a small smile and said, "There's still hope." Then she added, "Assuming that I can control my need for stealing, that is. Otherwise it's back to the slammer. At least my name won't be in The Reaping that time around." Roisin said with a grim expression. Then she shook her head and said, "No, I won't let that happen again. After being here I swear I won't return to another forsaken detention facility. It's too depressing. Gray walls everywhere, poor tasting food, no privacy, no real contact with the outside world unless my parents ever cared to visit." she sighed deeply, "Like that will ever happen. At least your parents didn't disown you."

Alequinne never knew how to react to Roisin's comments about her parents. She looked a little empathetic, but no words came out of her today.

Roisin scrunched her eyebrows as if she was in deep thought and then said, "You know, I've been here a little over two years, and you're the only friend I have. Guess it pays to be an introvert. Ha!" She was trying to make the best of the situation.

"I feel honored by that!" laughed Alequinne along with her.

Although Roisin was clearly intellectually superior to Alequinne, she did her best not to look down at her. Every once in a while, Roisin would treat her like an inferior, but that was rare. Alequinne needed a friend and, for whatever reason, Roisin was the one who seemed to fit.

Just then a static voice came over the intercom, "Ladies, it's time to report to the Hall of Justice. Please be there by 9:30 so everyone can get checked in and be ready for The Reaping at 10:00."

"Well, I guess we should see where destiny takes us. Maybe the odds will be in our favor." Alequinne looked at Roisin and cracked a small smile. Her tone was more depressing than cheerful.

They picked up their trays and Roisin said, "Remember, we are both way less than one percent. Keep that in mind." Alequinne returned with a slight nod at that statement.

The two girls went to a queue and eventually got to place their trays on a conveyor belt. The utensils and plates rattled as they set them down. They turned and walked out the cafeteria at the same pace as the rest of the girls, all of whom had a worried expression on their face. Roisin could tell that each one felt that the odds were against them.

Last year when Roisin made the walk to the square she gradually became more and more nervous upon reaching it. This year was no different. She was never really shaky; she just had a sick feeling in her stomach. Perhaps she should not have eaten so much, she reasoned. Alequinne walked right beside her and they kept pace, knowing that stalling was not going to prevent the inevitable. Peacekeepers guided the girls to the square. When the girls got there, they went through the identification process run by the Peacekeepers and then got into the huge square before the Hall of Justice

In front of The Hall of Justice was a stage with steps that leading up to it which was used for The Reaping. It was well kept compared to other districts overall. Roisin wondered what it was like in that administration building. Some government officials worked there during the day, and it was usually guarded by several Peacekeepers. Today they were stationed at the entrance to the square where the children were gathered in front of the Hall.

Roisin had thought about escaping The Reaping on numerous occasions, but she quickly ruled out the possibility during the first reaping. If an escape was possible she didn't think she could live life on the lam. She only knew how to steal, but she was uncertain if she could steal food frequently enough for survival. Roisin was a smart girl, no doubt, but survivor skills were not her forte.

The two girls reached a spot about forty yards away from the stage. Alequinne appeared to be nervous. She took Roisin's right hand and gripped it tightly. This made Roisin uncomfortable, but she returned the grip for Alequinne's sake. She whispered in Roisin's ear, "So all of these other kids are basically here for show?"

"Not entirely." Roisin replied quietly. "Their names are in the bowl, it's just they only have one slip in there. They are given the illusion that their names are in their more than once, but really the tesserae system is more of a joke for them. Besides, hardly any of these kids come from impoverished backgrounds. The Capital just needs to see all of us. Otherwise they would be completely suspicious of the scheme the district is running here. I would also like to point out that's why we're not in our usual detention outfits."

Alequinne had a look of clarity on her face, "And to think I was nervous all of those years before now. If only I had known all along, it might not have been so bad."

"Yes, but there was always the possibility, no matter how incredibly improbable, that your name could have been drawn." replied Roisin in such a matter-of-fact way. "I figured out this whole system long before I became incarcerated."

"How?" inquired Alequinne.

"I have my ways. It's best not to concern yourself with such minutiae." Roisin shrugged as if it was a small accomplishment. The girls kept holding each other's hands, and gripped tighter when a tall and slender middle-aged woman walked out of the building and onto the stage.

Alequinne whispered to Roisin in slight disgust, "I don't know what I hate more, her turquoise hair and her excessive amount of makeup, or that stupid Capital accent."

Roisin tittered a bit. "Yeah, I'd say it'd be too close for me to call as well."

The woman went up to the microphone gave a brief welcoming and introduced herself as Jordy Gauge. She had been the district's escort since Roisin was six-years-old. It was a role that Jordy appeared to take seriously, given her enthusiasm that she always portrayed. Didn't she know that she was sending two of these children to almost certain death each year, wondered Roisin. District 5 was not known to have many victors. Those were the Careers of Districts 1, 2 and 4.

The mayor of the District, Mr. Garvik, gave the usual brief speech before the drawings of the tribute names. First it was all the disasters including droughts, massive storms, rising sea-levels. Eventually a war for resources broke out, and to bring order out of chaos Panem was created along with the thirteen districts. Then, of course, the districts rebelled against the Capital during the so-called Dark Days. A war had broken out and the Capital eventually won. District 13 was wiped off the map and the Treaty of Treason was created.

The Treaty calls for one boy and one girl in each district between ages 12 and 18 to partake in The Hunger Games. The Games serve as a reminder that the Capital is not to be messed with at all. However, the winner of The Games gets a life of luxury as a reward. This, in their mind, is an act of blessing. Roisin heard about the fates of all the tributes in District 5; they would commit suicide, go on a killing rampage out of nowhere and would be executed for their crimes. Or, in the case of one woman, become catatonic. But there was one District 5 victor that did none of these and managed to stay alive, Stephin Windslow. So when the speech was over Jordy took to the microphone and started talking again.

"Happy Hunger Games to you all, and may the odds be ever in your favor!" She paused briefly, but kept a large smile on her face. "Now the time has come to draw this year's tributes to represent this wonderful district!" said Jordy as if she really meant it. "As per tradition, we'll start with the ladies." She slowly reached her hand in the bowl and swirled it around a bit. Then she picked out a white slip, turned to the microphone, opened it and said, "Roisin Jainwynne! Come on up little lady!"

Roisin's eyes widened and she inhaled deeply and held it. She immediately let go of Alequinne's hand and was slightly frozen. It quickly dawned on her that she was being filmed and that she needed to keep her composure the best she could. The next few moments were going to require a great amount of acting in order to get the attention of Capital viewers who might bet on her in the arena.

Alequinne turned to her quickly and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" There was nothing she could do to comfort Roisin except give her a hug.

Roisin hugged her as briefly as possible and said, "Hey, there's always a chance I'll return." But the tone in her voice was not very convincing. A tear went down Alequinne's face.

"Roisin, where are you young lady?" asked Jordy still projecting enthusiasm.

Roisin gradually walked up to the stage and tried to display a certain amount of confidence, when she got to the stage she turned to the crowd and gave those in attendance a small smirk. It was a move that she was hoping would pay off later on.

"Do we have any volunteers for Roisin?" There was a moment of silence. In the history of The Games only three people volunteered in District 5. "No? Well then congratulations, Miss Jainwynne, you're our female tribute!" Jordy clapped quickly and smiled. Roisin was still looking at the audience with a smirk on her face.

"And now for this year's male tribute." Jordy stuck her hand in a different bowl and swirled it around. She found a white slip, opened it, turned the microphone and read, "Bonifant Mishell! You get to represent this fine district in this year's Hunger Games!"

Roisin scanned the crowd for her male counterpart. She quickly saw a tall and slender boy with brown hair and had a pallid color on his face. Roisin did not recognize the boy at all. Upon her discovery she squinted her eyes as if she was sizing him up. On the one hand she had an ally, and on the other she had a foe. Given that he was going to compete against her, she decided that she was going to remain as emotionally distant from him as possible.

"Bonifant? Bonifant?" asked Jordy still scanning the crowd. A boy next to him gave him a quick nudge and he shook himself as if he just realized the fate that had been dealt to him.

"There you are young man!" said Jordy. "Come on up to the stage Mr. Mishell!"

Bonifant walked up to the stage slowly. He didn't walk with any sense of confidence. If only he had realized that every eye in Panem would be on him and that this moment might make or break him in the eyes of the other tributes he might have put forth more effort. He kept his head down when he ascended the stairs and made it to the stage. Roisin wondered if he could be any more pathetic.

"Do I have any volunteers for Bonifant?" Again the crowd was silent save for a cough in the back. "None? Well, then may I congratulate you for being this year's male tribute from this great district!" She clapped again and Bonifant gradually raised his head. "Now let's have the two of you shake each other's hand and show us that you're good sports!"

Roisin turned to Bonifant looked him in the eye and glared at him. This seemed to have surprised him. In fact when he extended his hand out to be shaken, Roisin grabbed it and shook it vigorously for all of Panem to see that she was the dominant tribute between the two of them. "Hopefully this façade will pay off in the long run." she thought. She turned back to the crowd and gave them a stern expression.

Jordy turned to the two of them and said, "Happy Hunger Games you two, and may the odds be ever in your favor!" She clapped again, and again the crowd was silent. However there was a look of relief on all of their faces signifying that they knew they had survived another year.

Mr. Garvik read the Treaty of Treason in its entirety, and the anthem of Panem signified the end of The Reaping. The children left the square as slowly and orderly as possible.

Chapter 3 – Genitors and Foes

Four Peacekeepers took Roisin and Bonifant inside the Hall of Justice. Though the thought had crossed Roisin's mind that she could put an end to her show that she did in front of the cameras at The Reaping, she quickly reminded herself that Bonifant was in her presence. Once in the arena, there are no real allies. Even the Careers knew that such things had to come to an end. Roisin thought that Bonifant was more of a liability anyway. He was visibly shaky, scared to the core, no doubt. She did her best to avoid eye contact with him as much as possible.

The Peacekeepers guided the two of the tributes to separate rooms. "You're allotted some time for guests to visit you for two minutes." one of them said. Then he added, "This may be the last time that you will see them, so cherish your time together as much as you can." He said this in coldy as if he knew that they were going to die.

As Roisin entered the room, she noticed that there was a certain relaxing ambiance about it. At last she could end her show for a bit, and be true to her feelings. There were a few chairs, a desk and some bookshelves. Naturally Roisin was curious what was on the shelves. She looked at several of the titles. One book grabbed her attention, "The Art of War" by a man named Sun Tzu. She glanced at the back of the book and read its reviews. Then she started reading bits of inside the book. She wasn't really sure that it was going to be of any help in her chances of survival, but she read it anyway because she didn't expect anyone to come in to talk to her. So she skimmed to parts that she thought would be interesting. Some of which actually were and others were not.

She rubbed her right temple, put the book down and sat down on the chair again. The chair was very comfortable. It was maroon with various patterns and dark wooden arms. It was facing the door, which made Roisin very nervous. She didn't want to acknowledge the fact that a Peacekeeper would be on the other side when it would open. So she decided to turn the chair around to face the window.

It was overcast outside. Roisin felt that the weather seemed to fit the mood of what her last few moments in the district would be. Would it rain outside, or wouldn't it? She hoped that it would. The rain always made her relax. Roisin wished that she would live in districts where rain was more common. She starred out the window and felt for the first time in her life that she really was alone. She slowly moved her right hand back and forth on the armrest and became pensive over the events of the day and what was to come.

After a few moments the door open and she turned around and saw the Peacekeeper who led her to the room. "You have some visitors, Miss Jainwynne."

Roisin stood up immediately wondering who could possibly be interested in seeing her before she left. Her eyes widened when she saw a middle-aged man and woman walk through the doors. "Mom? Dad? What are you two doing here?" Roisin asked when she recognized them.

Her father cleared his throat and said, "To wish you well, Roisin."

"And to let you know that we love you deeply." A tear went down her mother's cheek when she spoke.

Roisin didn't know what to say. Thoughts were racing through her head, but for whatever reason she felt that she had to extricate one of the questions that had been on her mind for years.

She raised her head, looked her mother in the eye and then began, "Love me deeply? You want me to buy that after all of that time I was in the detention facility and you did not bother to come and see me? Not even once." Roisin's voice was a mixture of anger and rationality.

Her father said, "Well, we always meant to…" he trailed off.

Roisin raised her voice, "Meant to? You either take the time, or you do not! There's no other way! Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to see all of the other inmates have their parents come in visit them and for much more serious crimes? I'm your only child! Your only child and you couldn't come to see me just once during that entire time! I felt so embarrassed, so sad and so sick knowing that my parents really didn't care for me one bit!"

Her mother interrupted with a caring tone, "Roisin, you know that's not true, honey."

"You didn't visit me, mother! Neither of you! And now you come to see me off to my death? All of a sudden when reality finally hit you, you both come here to say goodbye before I die." She crossed her arms and said, "Well here I am. What have you to say to me?"

Her father put his hand on Roisin's right shoulder and said, "Honey, we do love you. We also know that you are exceptionally smart. You're probably going to be the smartest one in the entire arena. We want you to believe in yourself. What you are capable of and what you can achieve. The odds may be in your favor after all." He said.

"Do you realize that, statistically, the odds are never in anyone's favor? At best they will be 50 percent when you make it down to the final two."

Her parents looked at each other, paused for a bit and then her mother spoke, "Sure, but there are plenty of other attributes to consider. After all, the number of people left does not count if the final person has certain attributes that the other does not."

"I'm not strong, mother!" Roisin asserted herself, "Brains don't always win over brawn. If it comes down to the final two, brute strength will win out. I…"

"Roisin, you're going to have to learn some tactical movements." Her father interrupted. "I'm sure they'll teach you them before The Games begin. I know you're smart enough to figure some moves out. Brains can win out."

Roisin looked at the floor for a moment, and considered what she could be capable of. Perhaps if she put forth some effort in learning how to fight she could win.

"Here. Take this as a reminder of who you are deep down inside, and of what you've always been." her mother held out a small auburn pin in the shape of a fox. Roisin took it and pined it to her shirt.

"Thank you." Roisin whispered softly.

Just then a Peacekeeper barged in the room. "Time's up!" he said authoritatively. Her parents hugged her briefly, and they were escorted out. The door slammed shut.

Roisin was left with her thoughts. She wondered if she really could win. She was exceptionally smart, after all. But there was no real point in assigning her chances at this time because she needed to see who her competition was. She reasoned that despite Bonifant was taller than her and definitely stronger, but he had fear in his eyes. He probably didn't think he had a chance of winning. If it really came down to the two of them, which Roisin believed was implausible, she could finish him off. She just needed to continue to intimidate him whenever the two of them were together.

Roisin went back to reading The Art of War and found a line in that that stuck out to her. It read, "Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak." It dawned on her this would be a legitimate tactic during The Games.

A few moments later, the door opened and the Peacekeeper said, "All right, it's time to go, Miss Jainwynne." Roisin walked slowly towards the door. When she got to the hallway, the Peacekeeper went behind her and gently pushed her so she could move faster. This irritated her, but she knew there was no way she could protest such treatment, so she picked up her pace.

Just then Bonifant was led out of a room on the right side of the hall. He was still noticeably shaky. Roisin couldn't believe how pathetic he was. Perhaps he had already accepted his ultimate fate. Then she worried that perhaps this was an elaborate ruse that he had been putting on the entire time. Could that really be the case? No. He didn't come across as someone who was really all that intelligent. After all he did get caught for a crime he had committed. But what was the crime? Perhaps that was the only way she could determine his intelligence. If he had committed something as severe as murder, then he clearly was capable of doing it again. But if it was something like petty theft then he really wouldn't be much of a concern at all.

So they walked outside towards a train that would take them to the Capital. Cameras were everywhere and Roisin kept walking with the confidence that she had at The Reaping. Her eyebrows were scrunched, and her head was level like before. She didn't acknowledge the cameras to keep her stern image. She kept reminding herself that it would pay off.

When they boarded the train, they were greeted by Jordy. Roisin was sickened by her face by that point. "Did Capital people have to present themselves in such a way that they would look entirely ridiculous to everyone else in Panem? Are these really the fashion trends that they embrace? Who profits from these idiots throwing money around to look so foolish? Whoever they are, they must be rolling in wealth." Roisin briefly acknowledged Jordy and did the best to hide her disgust.

"Hello my two brave tributes! Aren't you excited to be on this luxurious train? Isn't it just splendid, and the food will be so amazing, you'll want to gorge yourselves on it!"

Roisin looked at the long dinner table filled with all kinds of sandwiches fruits, desserts, and all other kinds of foods that she didn't recognize. Perhaps gorging herself would be a great idea given the unknown food sources and amount of time that would be spent in the arena.

Just then a man burst through the door. He looked a little pallid, but it didn't seem to be his natural tone. His hair was short and dark. His eyes were brown. The man was average height, and he looked like he was physically fit at one point in his life. Perhaps time had gotten the best of him. His face seemed a little worn as well.

"Sorry I wasn't at The Reaping, kids." He said quietly in a somewhat raspy voice, "Too many bad memories."

Roisin reasoned that the man was Stephin Windslow, the victor of the 59th Hunger Games and the last one who had won from District 5. The man was the pride of the district, but it was always clear that he didn't care for such an honor. Whenever someone praised him, he would fake a smile, shrug his shoulders and say something as succinctly as possible. Then he would pass by or leave as soon as he could.

Roisin never understood why he came off the way he did until he spoke at that moment. He didn't want to relive any of the moments he had as a tribute. Yet he had to do so year after year now that he was forced to be a mentor. He had sent twenty-eight kids to their death, and he would send at least one more this year. But would it really relieve him of his pain? No. Nothing could change that. Roisin thought, "Once in the arena, always in the arena."

Jordy gestured to the table, "I think it's time that we all eat." She was way too cloy for Roisin.

"Yeah. I suppose we should. After all we don't want this food to go to waste." said Stephin sarcastically knowing that a fair amount would be thrown out eventually. Roisin already appreciated Stephin for his sarcasm.

Jordy and Stephin sat down so Roisin and Bonifant followed suit. Roisin didn't know where to start. There was so much food to choose from. So she waited to see what everyone else at the table was trying out. Then she decided on a turkey and cheddar cheese sandwich, a bowl of gapes, coleslaw, a slice of strawberry shortcake and some milk to wash it all down with.

While eating there really wasn't much idle chit-chat between all of them. Stephin decided to talk to them about strategy in the middle of lunch. He swallowed the food that he had in his mouth and said, "I'm going to try and suss out what you're capable of and what you are not. From there, I want you to follow any advice I have to give to you two. Got that?" He was very assertive on that last point.

Roisin and Bonifant nodded their heads in agreement. Roisin was impressed by his vocabulary.

"Good. What I'll tell you may be the difference between life and death. It is very important that you listen and understand everything I say."

Roisin was skeptical because if his advice was so sound, then there wouldn't be twenty-eight teens dead under his watch. However it is entirely possible that he had experimented with so many strategies and seen so many victors in his time that he could determine what would really work for her after all. In any event, what he might say could increase her chances of winning. If she felt that he was not giving her sound advice she could simply ignore it. Roisin's eyes were completely fixated on him.

"The first and most important lesson that you need to learn is how to obtain sponsors. Those who survive usually have several items that are sent in by sponsors that are useful. It could be anywhere from food, to medicine, to a weapon and so on.

"So the question is how are you going to please the crowd enough to get these sponsors? I, your prep team and the head of your prep team will craft an image out of you that will aid you in obtaining sponsors. Also you have to prove yourself to the sponsors that you are worthy of whatever they want to give you. This will probably be the hardest part because it will most likely involve taking a life or two. I'll give you more advice as we progress towards The Games and I get to know you better."

Roisin looked down at the table trying to soak in the information so that it could internalize it. She knew the importance of sponsors from watching The Games on television. She also wasn't sure if she could take a life. Now there seemed to be no other alternative than to do so. Roisin swallowed her throat and quickly finished her meal so that she could watch the replay of The Reapings on television. Aside from trying to size up her opponents, she also wanted so see if she put on a convincing show or not.

They all went to the car with the television. Roisin and Bonifant sat on a couch in front of the television, but she made it a point to be as physically separated as possible. The replays came on and Roisin was making as many mental notes as possible. The two tributes from District 1 looked aggressive as always. The girl from District 2 appeared to be short, but definitely a lot stronger than she was. The boy from District 2 seemed vicious. He actually lunged forward to volunteer for The Games. "Stupid, boy." she thought. "You still could lose after all." The other tributes didn't seem to stick out up to that point. District 4 was as banal as every other year.

Finally it came to District 5. "That's us!" shouted Jordy with such enthusiasm. "My, do I look marvelous!" Roisin was completely disgusted with that statement. "How self-centered is she?" Roisin briefly thought.

When Roisin's name was called, it was noticeable that she hesitated a bit. But that was for a second or two, and then she definitely came across as confident after that. She was pleased with her facial expression and the hosts did make a brief comment on that. Bonifant looked completely forlorn. There was no way he was going to get a sponsor looking like that.

Roisin watched the meaningless tributes as well. District 10 had a boy with a crippled foot. "Why not lie down at the start of The Games a wait for death?" she thought. "He's a goner."

District 11 had a small girl that looked way too young to be in The Games. The boy, on the other hand, seemed terrifying. Not in the way that the boy from District 2 did. That boy was a career, and it was expected of him. But the boy from District 11 was naturally threatening. Roisin wanted to keep away from him as well.

Finally it got to District 12. Roisin thought that they would be a nonfactor, like most of the time. A little girl was reaped but out of nowhere, another girl was screaming her name. She kept yelling, "Prim!" and then she yelled out that she would volunteer as tribute. This shocked Roisin because it was rare for anyone outside the career districts to volunteer. The girl identified herself as Katniss Everdean and that it was her sister that she was volunteering for. Roisin's became worried. "Oh, no! She has something worth fighting for!" Roisin muttered under her breath. The others in the car didn't appear to acknowledge her comment. The boy who was reaped from District 12 appeared to be as pathetic, if not worse than, Bonifant.

Chapter 4 – City of Indulgence

It was getting late and Roisin really wanted to be by herself, so she chose to retire to her room. Even it was spacious for being on a train. Her mind was elsewhere, however. She looked out the window and watched the scenery change. It would have been an extremely pleasant ride if the circumstances were different. Travel between districts wasn't allowed, and it was nearly impossible to travel within District 5. But the circumstances were different. To her, the ride was way too depressing, so she shut the curtains to try and forget about what lie ahead.

As much as she tried focusing on other things, Roisin couldn't get the events of the day out of her head. The Reaping felt like it was already days ago as well as her conversation with her parents. She lay on her bed and went through highlights of the conversation over and over again. Should she have said something different? Should she have been grateful that her parents even bothered to show up to say goodbye? Would it have been worse if they hadn't? More importantly, should she have said something different? Bitterness. Pure bitterness was all that was in her voice. That and disbelief. Her parents came to tell her they loved her, but she shut them out. They tried to give her hope and she gave them skepticism. The notion that she could somehow win The Hunger Games was incredulous in her mind. All she had left to remind her of them was the little fox token.

She took off the small auburn colored pin and stared at it a bit. A fox. A simple little fox. Why a fox? She put the pin on a night stand and pondered its meaning. Perhaps her parents thought the animal was like her. Foxes are scavengers at time, but they feast primarily on rodents, insects and berries. They are associated with being very cunning. Above all, they are quiet. She's never heard the sound of a fox.

Perhaps they don't make a sound at all. But that really can't be the case. They have to communicate somehow. Mating calls are universal to animals. Also, when people think of a fox, they almost always think of the red fox. Roisin had red hair. Perhaps these were all of the messages they were sending to her. Or she was reading way too deep into it, like she usually does with just about everything. In any event the words in The Art of War and the attributes of the fox seem to be great inspirations on how to survive the arena. Perhaps Stephin would be in agreement. "Enough thinking for tonight. Go to sleep, Roisin." she said quietly to herself. And she drifted off.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Roisin quickly sat up, inhaled deeply and looked around her. The room seemed completely foreign to her.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Then a familiar voice called out, "Wake up, Roisin! It's time to get ready for breakfast! Today we'll arrive at the Capital!"

Roisin sunk down and remembered where she was. "Still on the death train to The Capital. Still with that annoying woman." She yelled out, "Give me some time, Jordy! I'll be there as soon as I can!" Her voice was groggy. She rubbed her eyes, and wondered how she could tolerate being around that powdered-faced woman any longer. Worse yet, the Capital will be full of powder faces. Powder faces, colored hair, unnaturally colored skin, bizarre clothing and stupid accents. These were the people she will need to stay alive.

She decided to shower up quickly and change into something relatively simple, but all she had in the room were her clothes from the day before. She thought that they might give her something different to ware before reaching the Capital. After she got ready, she ran down to the main car where everyone else was. Breakfast was being served. When she arrived her first focus was the food on the table. Eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, French toast, syrup, mixed fruits, oatmeal, yogurt, orange juice, and milk. Her eyes widened at the sight of it because she had never seen such huge portions and such a variety all served at once. She didn't know where to being.

"Nice to see you could join us, Roisin."

Roisin didn't acknowledge Stephin. She piled up as much food as she could on her plate and determined that even if she was full, she still had to go for seconds to get ready for The Games. "Anything to increase my odds." she thought.

"Roisin, are you gonna say something or not?"

When she had finished putting food on her plate she said, "By acknowledging your question in this manner, I have sufficiently given you an answer." She turned and smiled to Stephin who was not amused.

"How churlish! This is your trainer and you should treat him with the utmost respect!" yelled Jordy.

"Just trying to have a little pre-breakfast fun." she replied, still bearing the grin.

"Sit down. It's time to get serious." said Stephin in a calm tone. Roisin obliged and began to stuff her face with eggs.

"All right, let's get started." Stephin continued. "Bonifant, I'm going to start with you. Obviously you're like many people and you don't want to be here."

"Obviously." interrupted Bonifant.

"However, you're here and you are going to have to accept that fact. So you're going to have to change your attitude to appear confident. Right now, I see nothing but a scared little boy and I'm 100 percent positive that the rest of Panem does as well." He paused and said very assertively, "You _need_ to change that in order to get sponsors. No one is going to bet on someone who lacks confidence."

"I don't stand a chance, Stephin."

"Well, feign confidence. That might be the best you can do. Again, you look like you're easy pickings for everyone else, including Roisin here."

Roisin was stuffing her face with French bread at this time. She took an audible swallow and said, "Ha! I have no intention of killing him! Someone else will do it for me, most likely."

"Dammit, Roisin, it's not your turn to speak!" Roisin was taken aback by Stephin. She had to have known that he was much more prone to anger than most people. But she couldn't get her initial impressions of the former tribute out of her head. He quickly calmed down and turned his head towards Bonifant, who still looked pathetic. Stephin continued, "I looked at your criminal history, as well as yours, Roisin, and I found out the reason you were in the detention facility. You were an accessory to murder."

Bonifant nodded, "That's right."

Stephin cocked his head, "So how did it happen?"

"I gave the murders the whereabouts of the person they chose to kill. I told them when he would be there and whether or not he would be alone. They killed him, but they brought me down with them."

"And why did you do it?" Stephin asked plainly.

"I wanted him dead as much as they did. I didn't care for his attitude. He was an arrogant prick and he needed to be eliminated." replied Bonifant.

"Apparently you didn't want him dead as much as they did, otherwise you would have killed him yourself." Bonifant slouched in his chair. Stephin leaned in and asked, "Now, tell me, how is that going to help you in the arena?"

There was no expression on Bonifant's face. "It's not."

"You're right. It's not going to help. Are you even capable of killing anyone? You're going to need to do it eventually if you make it far enough. When push comes to shove, will you kill?" He paused waiting for a response. "Will you?"

Roisin put down her yogurt and stared at Bonifant.

"I will."

"I don't believe you." Stephin replied firmly. "Quite frankly, I'm worried about you. Where's your courage? You're going to be facing death, and all you got is an answer that is only fooling yourself." Then he yelled, "Get confidence, and get it now!" Bonifant's expression remained blank as ever.

He turned to Roisin who was still gobbling down her breakfast. "And then we have you. As I mentioned before, I took the liberty of seeing what crime you committed that got you into the Detention Facility. It says you stole the most expensive diamond necklace at the time. Almost got away with it, correct?"

Roisin put down her fork with a piece of muskmelon stuck on it. "That's right."

Stephin's eyes rolled up and to the left. "Now something tells me that this wasn't your first time stealing something was it?" His eyes locked on Roisin again.

"No. It wasn't." she replied.

"So how many things have you stolen in the past?"

"Forty-two." Roisin replied and continued. "But that last one had the highest value."

"How long did it take for you to plan this crime?" Stephin continued to inquire.

"It took me two and a half weeks. I attempted to plot where each Peacekeeper was supposed to be and at each time."

"But something went wrong didn't it?"

"Two of the Peacekeepers were off pace. So I hesitated, but I decided to go forward with the plan after they passed by again. Unfortunately the whole thing threw off my calculations, and I got caught eventually." Roisin looked down reliving the moment.

"Overconfidence. Pure and simple." replied Stephin. "Still I admire that. Perhaps it will suit you well in the arena. Thievery and intelligence are your best attributes. You're a mathematically-minded person, aren't you?"

"I live by probabilities and whatnot." Roisin replied softly.

"Good. Calculate your opponents, but don't underestimate some of them. Get to know them by observing their body language. Get to understand their strategies. Take notice of any physical attributes. However, you cannot live by probabilities alone, because there will be tributes that you'll calculate to have better odds than you. If it comes down to the final two and it's between a Career and you, you'll calculate that the Career has a better chance of winning. Then your calculations will harm your chances of winning. If a man or a woman thinks he or she will die, he or she will find a way to make it happen." Stephin turned to Bonifant, "Hey, this advice applies to you as well!" Bonifant looked at him quickly.

"Okay. I'll try to figure a few more things out about you before The Games. We'll discuss more specifics when it comes to strategy. In the meantime, Bonifant work on your confidence, and Roisin keep your image up. I gather that people see your image as somewhat of a… fox, perhaps?" Stephin chuckled, "I noticed the pin you were wearing yesterday. I'm sure other people in the Capital did as well."

"All right, tributes!" Jordy blurted out, "We're getting closer. I have put out your attire for the entrance."

Stephin turned to Roisin and spoke softly, "Put the pin back on." Roisin nodded in agreement.

Roisin went and took a brief shower. Then she put on the clothes that were laid out for her. A green, short-sleeved, low cut shirt and black pants. The shirt was skin tight, and it made her feel extremely self-conscious. She wasn't sure what to do with her hair, so she combed it out. Roisin almost left her room when she remembered to put the pin on. "A fox, eh?" she said to herself quietly, "Yes, I'll be a fox." She put the pin on her left side and then proceeded out the door.

She got to the main car and Bonifant was dressed in a red t-shirt and blue pants. He really didn't have much to look at for muscles. Roisin thought that they could have hidden his arms, but then ruled it out because the audience was going to see them eventually.

Then they all saw the Capital. Various colors were all over the buildings. Roisin heard of the term "skyscrapers", but she never saw one in her own district. These buildings were at least three times as tall. She looked at them with disgust and wonder, if there ever were to be such an emotional reaction. However, her expression turned to complete disgust a few moments later as she saw the Capital people. The people that get their jollies watching children fight to the death. They don't know the pain that the families of the victims experience. They don't know the effects the victors experience after they come back home to their districts. All they see are the ceremonies right after The Games. Even if they saw how Stephin turned out, they probably wouldn't care.

As the train stopped Roisin saw them clearly. "Don't they realize it's hard to stand out when everyone else looks as weird as you do?" she thought to herself.

Jordy and Stephin led Roisin and Bonifant out to the platform. Cameras were all over the place. Every movement was recorded. Roisin was still disgusted with the way they looked, so she naturally looked stern. Bonifant, on the other hand, was clearly feigning confidence. She wondered if the Capital would buy his act. So, they walked to the building where they would meet their stylists.

Chapter – 5 Prepping for a Parade

"Oh! Don't you just love working with redheads Gwynnefir?" said a heavy set woman with blue hair and a strangely designed tattoo on her neck.

"Yes, Tillie, they do have natural beauty! But we still got our work cut out for us." replied the rail thin woman with orange eyes and pierces all over her face. "Tell me, Shivar, do you think?"

"Hmm. We definitely have a lot to do here." said a skinny man with gold hair and a purple goatee. "At least we don't do District 11 or 12. Those people are complete savages."

Roisin sat on a table naked before the three of them while they discussed what the latest fashion crazes are like in the Capital and how it could apply to her. She felt completely embarrassed, vulnerable and incredibly annoyed. There were plenty of times when she bit her tongue while they were talking.

"Lay back, Miss Jainwynne. We're going to make you presentable." added Shivar.

The command made Roisin even more uncomfortable and completely irritated. "Presentable?" she thought, "How on earth am I going to fit these freaks' definition of presentable? Are they going to dye my skin pink and pierce me a thousand times?"

So they hosed her down, washed her hair, dried her up and removed hair from her body all while talking about banal Capital trends.

"Well," started Shivar, "I heard that District 12 got this new head of the girl's prep team."

"Yes. I'm sure he'll have them dress up in overalls and hard hats covered with soot." replied Gynnefir who burst out laughing after saying that.

"I really don't care for his style. It seems a little… archaic." said Tillie when she finished laughing.

"Well, then, we won't have much competition now, will we?" added Shivar.

Roisin did her best to drown out their comments. She hated how they were constantly picking at her, plucking hairs. She felt more and more perturbed the longer the process went. It seemed like she was some kind of clay to them that needed to be molded and painted. She wondered how much more she could take until she would lash out at them.

"Good thing Roisin here isn't as ugly as the girl from last year. There was no way anyone would have bet on her no matter what we could do to make her beautiful." said Tillie.

That was enough to set her off. She pushed them off of her and started yelling, "Isn't as ugly? What are you saying you pretentious tool? Have you even looked in the mirror? And that girl is dead now, so you should not have said that about her!" Roisin felt a bit extricated after saying that. The prep team was clearly not amused.

"Well, aren't you a little vixen!" yelled Gwynnefir in response. "The nerve of you to say such things! Here we are dolling you up for the big parade and this is the thanks we get!"

"Wait," said Shivar, "What was that word you called her?"

"A vixen." replied Gwynnefir, "You know, a quarrelsome woman."

Shivar seemed to have an epiphany. "I think there's another meaning to that. Something we can work with." He paused and added, "Yes, it might apply if I'm right." He rushed to a computer and typed a few things in.

Tillie turned to Gwynnefir and asked, "What's he talking about?"

"Here," beckoned Shivar while pointing at the monitor, "take a look."

The two women came to him. "A female fox." said Tillie quietly.

"But the parade deals with what their district represents. Foxes have nothing to do with supplying power." stated Gwynnefir.

"No, they don't. But we do have somewhat of a template for what she could wear for the interview." replied Shivar. He stood up quickly and said, "Change of plans, girls."

"Excuse me." interrupted Roisin. "I think we should be working on tonight."

"Tonight's already been taken care of by Malpid, vixen. We're almost done with you for today." Shivar replied with a tone of frustration. "Finish your work, ladies." he commanded and then added, "I got a dress to create."

Shivar started scratching away at a piece of paper with a pencil. The two of women put on the finishing touches adding make up all over her face and painting her nails. When they were finished Roisin sat up on the table and folder her arms, still very upset over the whole experience.

Tillie looked at Shivar's design and exclaimed, "District 5 might stand a chance with Malpid's outfit and your new design for her interview! We just gotta run it by Malpid as soon as possible."

"I'll take it to him!" said Gwynnefir holding out her hand with anticipation.

"So you can get credit for it? I don't think so." Shivar shook his head and started walking towards the door.

"I want to see it!" cried out Roisin.

"Not until the interview, vixen. Ladies, dress her in a gown and take her to where Malpid is to meet her."

They put a gown on Roisin and led her into a very cold room. "Sit down and wait until Malpid comes." commanded Tillie.

"Really? I was going to run away to moment I got a chance to." Roisin replied sarcastically.

"Shut up, vixen!" yelled Gwynnefir who seemed sick of Roisin's attitude. "We don't need any more quarrels coming from you!" The ladies left the room and slammed the door shut.

"So we're continuing with this fox thing?" thought Roisin. "I suppose I'll have to keep acting like one. 'Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.' Wise words, Mr Tzu." She lay back on the table, closed her eyes and wondered what Alequinne was doing without her. Was she making a new friend, or will she sit by herself at lunch? She hoped Alequinne wouldn't have to go through everything that she had been through these past few days.

A long while later a man came in. He wore a violet shirt and had hair that matched it. He grinned and said, "Hello, Miss Jainwynne. I hear you're a little vixen. I hope you won't quarrel with me."

"I can't make any promises. You're friends are quite irritable."

"I couldn't agree more." he widened his grin. "But they do have a great design for your interview dress. Tell me, what do you think of us Capital people?"

"You want an honest answer? That seems like a loaded question." Roisin folded her arms.

"Sure. I'm curious. I can gather what you think of us, but I want you to air it all out." He lifted his arms and slowly spun in a circle while he spoke.

Roisin inhaled, "You're all a bunch of ostentatious jerks who care nothing about the districts that keep you feed and maintain your way of life! You send twenty-three children to their deaths each year, and the victor is left mentally and emotionally scarred! You have no decency, and I would never aspire to be anything like you narcissists!"

"Ha!" Malpid laughed. "This is the first year a girl answered so eloquently and with such force. Thank you. Most are just too afraid to even sting a sentence together."

Roisin was confused, "And you're not mad at me?"

"Why should I be? I appreciate an honest person. I know how we're perceived by the districts. I have no delusions. However, I have to need to apologize for my sense of fashion to you. Now, please follow me. I hope we can become good friends over the next few days." He opened the door and then they walked down the hall together. "We have dinner tonight with Bonifant and the head of his prep team, Leftiy, along with Jordy and Stephin."

The six of them dined together. Roisin continued to stuff her face as much as possible. Jordy stopped her for a moment and said, "Not too much, dear. We don't want you to not be able to fit into your costume tonight after all the work your team put in."

Roisin responded by shoving a spoonful of mashed potatoes in her mouth. She gave Jordy and wide grin and continued eating while Malpid and Leftiy discussed the night ahead of them. They also talked briefly about the vixen idea for Roisin's interview. Leftiy seemed rather excited about the concept and suggested some more ideas to Malpid. He seemed to be ignoring her advice however.

"All right, let's go and get you changed. Tonight is our night and no one else's. Our costumes won't fail us this year." said Malpid. He wiped his hands and stood up.

Malpid walked with urgency in his step which made it hard for Roisin to keep up. Upon reaching her changing room Roisin was surprised at the costume that was before her. "What's this, Malpid?"

He gestured to the dress, "This is one small step in a long road to winning the hearts of the Capital." He smiled and appeared to be completely proud of his accomplishment.

Roisin touched the outfit and was wide-eyed with amazement. A smile slowly grew larger on her face. "Don't judge it until you've put it on and looked in the mirror." said Malpid.

She slipped the dress over her head and was about to look into the mirror when Malpid stuck his hands out that carried a crown and said, "Oh, put this on your head as well."

So Roisin placed it on her head and looked in the mirror. She stared at her reflection up and down the mirror. She was wearing a dress mixed with different colors and sizes of energy bolts that sparkled all over. Upon her head the crown was designed to have that had golden bolts jutting here and there.

Malpid smirked and said, "What do you think?"

"It's… incredibly beautiful, Malpid!" Roisin never wore anything fancy in her entire life. There was no occasion that called for so to do so. However the image before her made her look so naturally attractive. She turned and gave Malpid a hug, squeezing him hard.

"Great! Now let's get you to the main floor of the Remake Center. Other tributes are going to be jealous." Malpid started to walk with urgency again.

When they made it to the main floor they met up with Bonifant, Leftiy, Jordy and Stephin." I say we look much better than the competition." said Leftiy looking around. Bonifant's outfit also had energy bolts of various colors.

"Quick! Get on your carriage. The show is about to start." said Stephin who walked them over and helped them up.

Bonifant turned to Roisin and said, "You look lovely."

Roisin smiled, "Tell me something I don't already know."

Moments later, the anthem of Panem started playing and the carriages of the districts in front of them began to move. Shortly it was their turn and when they first appeared the crowd roared. Roisin's heart beat faster. She wasn't sure if it was because of her nerves, the attention she was getting, or both. "They like us." she said to herself. She looked up at one of the screens and saw her face. She quickly gave her smirk and the crowd roared even louder. Some of them were chanting "Roisin!", but all of this was short lived because by the time they reached halfway something else got the audience's attention.

Roisin looked up at a screen and immediately became jealous. There was Katniss and the boy from District 12 and they were on fire. At least they appeared to be. Worse yet, they were holding hands. The crowd started yelling out Katniss' name and adorned her with roses. She caught one and blew a kiss in the direction it came from. That disgusted Roisin.

"There goes our show." said Bonifant.

"I should have known she was going to steal the parade." Roisin looked down with a blank stare.

"Hey, the show is still on. The cameras aren't going to be off us completely. Snap out of it!" yelled Bonifant.

Roisin put on her smirk again and maintained it for the rest of the parade just in case the cameras were to pan back to her. She would occasionally look up hoping that they would, but just about every glance she made there was Katniss on the screen. Roisin felt incredibly angry and jealous. She reasoned that there would be plenty of opportunities for Katniss to make a mistake up to the start of The Games.

Perhaps she would get a low score or botch up her interview. "Maybe she'll trip and fall while she's walking up some stairs and injure herself." The idea made her laugh a little bit and eased her tension.

The tributes all made it to the city center and circled around in front of President Snow's mansion. The name was a fitting name given the color of his hair and skin. The music ended and President Snow gave his usual speech wishing the Tributes luck. Then he said the usual, "May the odds be ever in your favor." Roisin wondered exactly how much her odds decreased tonight when Katniss and the boy from District 12 came in.

The carriages arrived at the training center where Roisin would spend the next few days. They were met by Malpid, Leftiy, Jordy and Stephin. Rosin ignored everything they were all saying and briefly glanced at each tribute trying to suss them out by their body language. She gave one quick glare at Katniss who must not have seen it. Then she looked and saw the girl from District 2 who appeared to be sizing her and Bonifant up. The girl chuckled a bit and whispered something to the boy from District 2 who smiled at what she said. Then they looked away. Roisin wasn't sure of what to make of it, but she definitely knew that it was not a good thing.

Chapter – 6 Languor?

Roisin tried to forget about the Careers from District 2 sizing her up and quickly got on an elevator. She pressed 5 assuming that her floor level would be the same as the number of her district. Other tributes were on the elevator as well, but she averted her amber eyes and pretended to look out the glass elevator.

"Forget it!" she thought to herself. "Maybe they will ignore you. Maybe they just think you're not a threat and won't deal with you. Why else would they laugh at you? Am I a joke to them? Maybe it's Bonifant they were laughing at. I'd laugh at him too if I was in their shoes. Yes, it had to be Bonifant and not me. They won't deal with a girl they see as… harmless."

When the elevator reached her floor and she got out and continued thinking. "Harmless. It's an obvious strategy. Why would they even bother with me if I seem weak? They'll have bigger fish to fry. They could spare me until it's closer to the end. Who knows how many of the Careers will be left, and if they are in critical condition? 'Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.' It worked for that one girl a while ago. She turned out to be a lethal person. But I'm nowhere near as lethal as she was."

Roisin walked through the door to where they would be living the next few days and ignored everyone who was in it. She went into her personal room, still thinking things over. After taking her crown, dress and undergarments off she went into the shower to wash everything off. The shower was automatic. The shampoo came down on her and she thoroughly washed her hair. Then soap was dispensed around hand level and she scrubbed the makeup off her. When she was finished showering she walked out expecting a towel, but she was hit with warm air from all around her. After she was all dried up, she went and put on some clothing and headed out to where everyone else was.

They were all sitting around a table having dinner which again had way too much variety for her to choose from. Roisin piled as much as she could on her plate and sat down at the table. When she realized that the glass in front of her was empty she started to get up in search of something to drink. However she was immediately stopped when a brunette girl around her age holding a tray of different pitchers of liquids stood close to her. Roisin sat down and the girl gestured to the drinks and seemed to indicate Roisin's options. Roisin didn't know what to make of the situation so she pointed to a pitcher and said, "I'll have whatever that is." The girl nodded and poured out the drink. When she was finished pouring out her drink, the brunette girl went around the table and poured out drinks to anyone else who wanted one. During this entire time the girl didn't speak. Roisin decided to turn to the conversation at hand.

"Well, District 12 certainly stole our thunder." said Leftiy, who was clearly upset.

"I suppose that new prep guy is a lot more imaginative than we assumed he was going to be. Who knows what he's got in store for the interviews? They probably won't be on fire for those." said Malpid who appeared to be trying to make the best of the situation.

"Let's just watch the recap of the parade and see if anything positive came out of it for us." said Stephin with a hint of resignation in his voice.

Roisin took her plate, and they all sat in the living room, turned on the television and waited for the recap. Roisin continued eating despite Jordy's protests about her not eating at the table. Roisin rolled her eyes and didn't acknowledge her. A few moments later, the recap of the parade appeared on the screen.

Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith went over the significance of the parade and pondered out loud what each district could possibly wear. The reminisced briefly on costumes of the past, going over their favorites and least favorites. Suddenly the anthem started playing and they turned their attention towards the parade. The two of them made comments while the chariots rolled out and made obvious connections about the costumes and how they related to the districts.

Roisin sat up straight when it was District 5's turn. Caesar remarked how he loved the costumes more than the previous four districts. Claudius pointed out Roisin's signature smirk and said that she definitely had a mysterious quality about her. The audience clearly responded positively to her. This caused Roisin to grin a bit, because she felt that she was still doing a great job maintaining her image. However, the two of them made a neutral comment about Bonifant. The focus quickly turned to the other tributes that were parading down the street.

When it was District 12's turn Caesar and Claudius poured out adulations on the two of them. They absolutely loved the costumes and applauded the work of their new prep team leader, who named Cinna. The show confirmed what Roisin already knew. The audience cheered for them and especially Katniss. When the two tributes held hands, Claudius mentioned how unprecedented the act was. He didn't know exactly what to make of it.

The whole spectacle was so cloy for Roisin that she put down her plate and said, "I'm not hungry anymore."

When the show was over, Stephin turned off the television and threw the remote at an empty chair, "How the Hell are we supposed to compete with that?" he yelled.

"It's not over, Stephin." Leftiy said. "There's no need to give up. They could both get a low score in front of the judges after their training is finished."

"That girl better not have any hidden talents! If she does it's almost a done deal! We won't get any sponsors!" yelled Stephin filled with frustration.

"Why did they hold hands? What kind of show are they putting on? Who on earth does that?" questioned Jordy.

"Who cares? It probably won't make a difference when they get into the arena." said Malpid.

Roisin didn't want to hear any more about Katniss and the boy from District 12. She tried to appear calm and said, "It's getting late, and I'm going off to bed." she stormed off anyway. When she reached her room, she slammed the door shut and plopped down on her bed.

"Katniss. Somebody better kill her off right away." Roisin thought. Then she was startled and sat up. "I've never wished death on anyone before in my entire life! What has become of me?" she thought to herself again. "These games are turning me into a monster, and I haven't even gone into the arena yet." She lay on her back again and muttered, "Stupid Capital pricks. They're turning us all into savages for their entertainment."

Roisin did her best to get images out of her mind, but she couldn't. She thought of her parents and Alequinne. They were most likely trying to think positively, she reasoned. Her mind turned back to Katniss with flames all around her and roses falling on her. Then there were images of Katniss holding that boy's hand. She heard Caesar's voice over and over again about how wonderful Katniss looked and how bizarre it was for the two of them to be holding hands. All of these thoughts raced through her head as she tossed and turned in her bed.

After what felt like hours, she admitted to herself that trying to get to sleep was futile at this point and that she needed fresh air. She tried to open a window, but it was not possible given how it was made. So she decided that she could try and find her way to the roof of the building. Roisin quietly opened her door and went out into the hallway. At the end of the hallway was a door that Roisin gently opened. There were stairs for her to ascend, so she quietly shut the door and walked up them. When she reached the top she opened the door to the roof. Upon opening it she walked in a room that was dome-shaped. She slowly walked to another door that she hoped would lead to the outside. When she opened it she felt a cool breeze coming, and she took a deep breath in.

Rosin gently shut the door and walked to the ledge. Suddenly the idea of jumping came into her mind. Suicide would be an easy way out of it all. Then she thought to herself that if it was this easy for her to access the roof there must be something that would prevent her from jumping. She tested her theory by sticking a finger out and, sure enough, there was an electric shock that followed.

"Ow!" she cried out. Then she quickly covered her mouth.

Roisin stepped back and looked at the buildings and the lights emanating from them below. She then looked up and noticed that it was impossible to see any stars due to all of the lights. The next time she would see any of them would probably be in the arena she thought. She longed to see them again and recalled a time in her childhood when she lay on her back and look up full of wonder. That time was long ago, before she turned to thievery. Then the diamond necklace entered her mind. It was the one event that brought her to this very night. She cursed herself for being so stupid. Suddenly she heard a door open and she quickly ran for cover around the corner of a wall.

She couldn't recognize the voices, but she could tell they were heading her way. She crouched down to hide herself as best as she could. The boy and girl slowly walked past oblivious to Roisin. It was Katniss and the boy from District 12. They weren't speaking at the moment, so she had to do her best to breathe quietly. When they had gone a safe distance away from Roisin curiosity struck her hard. She slowly followed them when they had turned a corner. Roisin gave a quick look, and Katniss and the boy were standing in the middle of a garden having a conversation. Roisin couldn't make out anything that they were saying. Perhaps they were whispering in case anyone was listening to them. It was a good move on their part. Moments later the boy wrapped his jacket around Katniss. Roisin was disgusted by the two of them, so she got up and left as quickly and quietly as possible.

When she got to her room she lay down on her bed. Though she was starting to get tired she disliked the tributes from District 12 more and more. Maybe they were in love with each other. She though back to their body language and didn't know entirely what to make of it all. Katniss was clearly not into him, but he may have been interested in her. Finally Roisin was overcome by languor, and she closed her eyes to sleep.

Chapter 7 – Separate Good from Bad

Despite the fact that she got to bed so late at night, Roisin managed to get up in the morning energized. Perhaps The Games had something to do with this, she wondered. She looked outside the window and saw that the air was misty in the Capital. She wasn't sure if this was an ominous sign of things to come, or if she was reading too deep into things again. After determining that the latter was the case, she decided to shower up and get dressed. Today was the first day where she was going to be trained how to survive the arena and she needed all the help she could get.

Strangely enough, Roisin was the first person to the breakfast table. Again she piled her plate with as much food as she could. When she sat down and started eating, her mind turned back to District 5. She thought about life inside the Detention Facility and how it seemed so much more preferable to the one she was experiencing now. Alequinne. What was she doing right now, anyway? What would she be eating and would anyone join her for breakfast? The poor girl seemed to be as introverted as she was. It might take her a few days just to have the courage to talk to anyone at all.

Moments later, Bonifant showed up to eat breakfast. Roisin did her best to pretend that he wasn't in the room. She just kept focusing on her plate at eating as must breakfast as she could. Bonifant cleared his throat as if to signify he wanted to say something, but Roisin ignored it. Eventually Jordy and Stephin joined the two of them at the table. After exchanging their pleasantries the conversation quickly turned to the events of the day and how training was to occur up to The Games.

"I can train you both as a team, or separately. How would you like this to happen?" asked Stephin.

"Together." Bonifant replied.

"Separately." said Rosin simultaneously.

Stephin and Bonifant looked at each other and appeared unsure of how to handle the situation. Bonifant seemed scared. Roisin wanted to maintain her distance between herself and Bonifant. There was no point in getting attached to him, and being trained together might do just that.

"Okay, then. You'll both be trained separately." replied Stephin. "So what kind of specialties do the two of you have?"

"I have none. I haven't used a sword or a bow and arrow. I've never got into a simple fist fight. I can't run long distance, and I have no survival skills." said Bonifant.

"Well, then, at least we know incompetence is you're strength." Stephin said sarcastically. "You're go to have to work on all of those today." He turned to Roisin and said, "I think we all know what you're an expert at, but is there anything else you would like to add?"

"Other than I'll most likely be the smartest person in the arena?" asked Roisin.

"Yes. Other than that." replied Stephin plainly.

"Well, I do have a strategy in mind, but I'd rather not let Bonifant know about it." she briefly looked at Bonifant after she said this.

"Good point. Whatever you're strategy is, I'm sure you'll surprise us all." said Stephin.

"Don't worry. I'll let you know when the time comes." replied Roisin.

"All right, then. I guess this means that you both have a lot to do throughout the day. Bonifant… just figure out how to do a few things. Roisin… well, figure out how to use some weapons in case you don't already know how. I'm under the impression that an expert thief never needed to resort to violence. Go on, now. Get to the basement. And remember, size up your opponents while you're down there. See if you can't figure out their talents."

Roisin and Bonifant walked out. When they got on the elevator he spoke to her. "What exactly did I do to you?" Roisin didn't respond, so Bonifant stopped the elevator.

"Hey! I'm asking you a question, here! What did I do to you?" he asked again.

Roisin looked at him for the first time that day and said, "Nothing. But it's what you can do to me. That's the issue, Bonifant. Don't you see? Don't you get it? One of us has to die. The odds are more likely that both of us will anyway."

Bonifant paused for a while, then added, "We could work as a team. That will increase our odds."

"No. I don't think it will, at least not for me. It'll help you last longer, sure, but I'm better off without you."

Her words seemed to have hit him hard. Roisin regretted what she said, but at the same time he asked for an answer. Bonifant pressed the button to continue the elevator's descent with force. Roisin believed that Bonifant wouldn't be talking to her anymore.

They made it to the basement of the training center. There were various stations set up throughout it. Roisin glanced here and there to determine who could most likely survive the arena and who couldn't. All of the Careers looked haughty. It didn't appear that the ones from District 2 were concerned with her any more. Maybe they really didn't see her as a threat. In fact, when she looked around, she noticed that she was one of the smallest tributes around. Slowly more and more tributes made it to the basement. One pair didn't show up for a long time. Of course that was District 12. Again Roisin glared at Katniss and again it appeared that she didn't even notice her. Katniss appeared slightly confident in herself, but the boy seemed a little uncertain. He was definitely a lot braver than he was during The Reaping. The two of them appeared to be rather chummy.

When she stopped looking around she turned back to Bonifant who had left her side. This shocked her a bit. Aside from her, who exactly would he turn to anyway? Then she reminded herself that she shouldn't care about such things.

A woman by the name of Atala introduced herself and went over the ground rules for good and bad conduct during the training session. She briefly discussed each skill station and their importance. When she had finished her speech the Careers immediately went for the deadliest of weapons and started wielding them around. Katniss and the boy still maintained their image as a team, going to the first station together.

Roisin knew she had a lot of learning to do over the next three days. She decided that she should work on her survival skills. It was the going to be the most important part of her strategy after all. First she went to the station that explained various types of edible nuts and berries. Roisin made as many mental notes as possible. She also glanced at other tributes at her station to see if any of the knowledge had been soaking in as well. Each tribute had to sort out which nuts and berries were safe to each and which were not. Roisin was the only one to ace the test. She smiled and thought that she had a better chance of surviving the arena.

The next station she went to dealt with many ways to start a fire. Roisin observed the different methods and then thought of certain situations where starting a fire would be a bad idea. Although it would make a lot of sense to start one at night, it would be a dead giveaway as to where she would be. The Gamemakers would be in charge of the temperature of the arena, so she would be at their mercy when it came to the elements. She looked up to where the Gamemakers where and noticed that they were taking notes throughout the entire time. She couldn't help but wonder what they thought of her.

The third station she went to dealt with climbing up things like trees and rock cliffs. She was pretty confident that she could climb a tree due to her days of thievery, but rock climbing was different. In any event, went it was her time to climb she did well in both areas. She was around average relative to the rest of the tributes who were at the station. However, the dark skinned girl from District 11 was definitely the best climber out of all of them.

Roisin sat by herself at lunchtime. She felt lonely knowing Bonifant would not be joining her. Even though she ignored him every time she sat down with him before, at least there was someone physically near her. She looked around her briefly. The Careers looked like they were the best of friends. She heard some laughter coming from a different direction, and it turned out to be Katniss and Peeta. Again Roisin felt annoyed, and again Roisin glared at Katniss to no avail. She took a deep breath and went back to eating her lunch.

When lunch was over Roisin determined that it was time that she learned how to use weapons. She thought to herself that she shouldn't start with something heavy because that would be too embarrassing if she was really bad at it. She didn't want to learn archery quite yet because she had no idea where to even begin. Knives seemed to be the reasonable place to start for her.

She got to the station and learned how to hold a throw a knife properly. The girl from District 2 was at the station the same time Roisin was. The girl was eyeing the knives the entire time. She didn't appear to be paying attention to what the instructor had to say. Roisin believed it was because she already knew how to use knives with ease. The time came for all of them to practice throwing at dummies. The girl from District 2 pushed her way forward to the front of the line. She grabbed two of the longer knives with serrated edges and threw them both with ease. One went straight into the chest and the other straight into the head. Each one was a bull's eye. Upon seeing her success, she turned to the other tributes and gave them a huge grin. "I think I've got the hang of it." she stated and stepped back for the others to try.

Roisin was too afraid to try after the girl's example of perfect execution. When it became her turn, Roisin picked up two knives with her trembling hands. She eyed the center dummy and hoped to, somehow, stick one of the knives somewhere in it. She lined up, inhaled deeply and threw the first knife with all her might. The knife missed the dummy completely and he butt end hit the wall. The girl from District 2 chuckled quite a bit while the other tributes remained quiet. Roisin shook it off and tried best not to let the laughter affect her. She inhaled deeply one more time and threw as hard as she could again. This time the knife barely missed the dummy. The girl laughed again causing Roisin to be infuriated. She grabbed another knife, ran up to the dummy and stated stabbing away at it to relieve her frustration.

"Hey! Hey! Stop that!" yelled the instructor. Roisin still was stabbing away. "District 5, stop it now!" she commanded. Roisin still didn't hear her, so the instructor ran up to Roisin and grabbed her arm forcibly, causing her to drop the knife. "That's enough, District 5." she said firmly.

Roisin calm down, slowed her breathing and looked back towards the other tributes. They didn't appear to know what to make of her. She then looked up to where the Gamemakers were. Some must have witnessed the entire episode and were writing a few things down. Roisin walked back to the station and stared down the girl from District 2 the entire time whose arms were folded and didn't seem intimidated by the entire spectacle.

So during the next two days Roisin did her best to learn several different weapons, but it she felt that she was getting nowhere with them. She was horrible at the bow and arrow station. She couldn't wield a sword very well due to not having enough upper body strength. Throwing a spear was an impossible task as well. She decided to cut her losses and focus on survivor skills. When she had gone over every survivor course, she repeated them in order to reinforce her knowledge of what she had learned.

The time had finally come for all of the tributes to perform before the Gamemakers in private sessions. Every district lined up numerically with the boys going first. Bonifant appeared as cold and distant as ever. Roisin tried not to let that get to her. She still felt bad about what she had said to him. Even though Roisin knew she was right deep down inside, she didn't have to answer his questions. She reasoned there was no point in trying to patch things up with him. If they both made it to the end, somehow, it would have to be either him or her that would walk out victoriously, and she always knew she couldn't get attached to him.

Roisin thought of a few things that she could display to the Gamemakers while waiting in line. It dawned on her that in order to keep her image, she had to score in the midrange. Somewhere between 5 and 7 would be ideal, just high enough to not be an easy target and just low enough to be a threat to the Careers. So, all she had to do was excel at one station, do horrible at another and do mediocre at another. She decided that she would separate the good berries from the bad berries, miss throwing two knives at a dummy completely and slightly struggle to get up a tree. It was a great plan and would most likely ensure a minimum score of a 5. 'Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.' she thought to herself. It didn't take very long until she was called into the room to perform in front of the Gamemakers.

"Roisin Jainwynne from District 5, ready to perform for you." she announced to the Gamemakers.

"Give it a go, District 5." the Head Gamemaker, Seneca Crane, responded without enthusiasm.

Roisin ran up to the table with a pile of berries and quickly sorted the edible ones from the poisonous ones with ease. She looked up to the Gamemakers for approval and some of them nodded slightly. Then she hurried to the knife throwing station and picked up two knives. The first one she horribly missed the dummy and the second one missed it by a few inches. She looked back to the Gamemakers and they continued making notes. Finally, she rushed up to a tree climbing station and appeared to struggle to get up to a high point in the tree. Then she went down as if she was not sure footed.

Once she reached the ground Seneca Crane said, "Thank you Roisin from District 5. I think we've seen enough. You may go now."

Roisin gave a quick bow to them and then walked out of the room hoping that she had accomplished her goal.

Chapter 8 – Results and Probabilities

After leaving the training room, Roisin immediately got on the elevator and pressed 5. She kept thinking about how she was pleased about her performance in front of the Gamemakers. Then she wondered what Bonifant did to try to impress them, if he was even capable of doing so. She was lost in her thoughts again when she got to her floor and went immediately to her room. She tried to remember the scores of previous victors in the past. One of them had received a 3 during the performance and ended up winning the whole thing. Obviously that was an outlier.

Roisin went to her bed, lay down and was mentally exhausted from the day. She dozed off for quite some time and dreamt of being back in District 5. Images came to her mind. The diamond necklace, the Peacekeepers, Alequinne, her parents and back to the diamond necklace all appeared before her in succession. The diamond necklace turned into a snake once she grabbed it. She dropped it on the ground and it turned into a black liquid that slowly moved towards her. Roisin backed up from the liquid and looked down on it. Suddenly it quickened its speed, and she started to run away from it. Eventually it caught up with her, and she started to drown.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Roisin woke up under the covers of her bed, which she twisted into a cocoon while she was sleeping.

Bang! Bang! Bang! "Wake up, Roisin! It's time to eat!"

Roisin undid the cocoon and sat up. "I'm coming, Jordy, I'm coming!" she cried out. She got out of the bed and went out to the dining room. Jordy, Stephin, Malpid, Leftiy and Bonifant were all at the table talking over a few things, but Roisin was focused on getting as much food on her plate as she could. Then she sat down and started to eat.

Stephin turned to Bonifant and asked, "So, how did it go? Do anything impressive in front of the Gamemakers?"

"Well…" Bonifant started. "I punched a dummy a few times and threw it about. It was a bit of a struggle."

"Bit of a struggle. I'm sure they were impressed by that." Stephin sarcastically replied. Roisin laughed causing him to turn to her. "And what exactly did you do, Miss Jainwynne?"

Roisin turned to him and said, "A few things. I sorted out edible berries from poisonous ones, intentionally missed a dummy twice while throwing knives at it, and then pretended to have problems going up a tree."

Stephin gave a look of confusion. "Wait a minute. Let me see if I get this straight. You intentionally missed the dummy twice and then pretended to have problems climbing up a tree. Correct?"

Roisin nodded, "That's correct."

"What exactly were you thinking, Roisin?" He inquired further.

"It's simple, really. Excel at one station, do poorly at another and do mediocre at another. The score should turn out to be somewhere in the midrange. The ideal range, if you will." She smiled a little bit after explaining her reasoning.

Stephin and Jordy locked eyes briefly and then he spoke again, "Why is that the ideal range, Roisin? I don't know what you're trying to say here."

"Let me break it down for you, then. If I were to score somewhere below a 5, I would be considered an easy target and, therefore, someone that the Careers would go after first so they can get as many kills out of the way as possible. But if I were to score above a 7, that means I could be seen as a threat to the Careers and they would hunt me down to eliminate me after taking out the easy pickings. So a score between a 5 and 7 means that I will be overlooked by the Careers and it will buy me time to separate myself from everybody."

Everyone still had a blank stare on their faces. Roisin added, "I'm continuing with the fox image, Stephin."

It looked as though Stephin understood what she was getting at. "I guess that seems reasonable. Are you sure this plan is going to work?"

"Remember that one tribute that used a similar strategy and became a victor?" Roisin added.

"Ah, yes. Johanna Mason. But she was a killer, Roisin. That's why her planned worked. Are you a killer?" he asked.

"I'm sure when the time comes to it, I will be a killer." Roisin replied with a little confidence.

"No, you can't simply be sure. You have to be absolutely certain that you are a killer. That's the difference between Johanna and you. She was a killer all along. You, on the other hand, may or may not be a killer. You've yet to prove to me that you are capable of it." Stephin said harshly.

Roisin thought for a bit and said, "I've nothing to prove to you. I've only have to prove to myself and prove to the Capital what I can do."

Stephin inhaled and exhaled heavily. "You're right. But you better put on a damn good show if you want to convince the Capital to bet on you. Otherwise you won't get any sponsors, because no one will be willing to waste their money on you. This plan may look good inside your head, but it's going to be a lot different than what goes on inside the arena." He turned to Bonifant, but was still talking to Roisin, "At least you have a plan." Bonifant looked confused during the entire exchange between Roisin and Stephin. He slouched down into his chair.

They all continued to eat. Roisin drowned out everyone else's conversation and started to second-guess her plan. She thought that it was a good idea at the time, but Stephin did point out that the Capital had to perceive her to be a killer like Johanna. How was she going to convince anyone she was capable of killing people if she couldn't convince herself? What would be the point of her strategy then? Maybe simply outliving most of the tributes would be enough to get a few sponsors, but how many need to die in order for her to be seen as viable? She was so distracted by her thoughts that she didn't realize that she barely touched her food until Malpid put his hand on her shoulder.

"It's time to watch the results from today's performance. Let's hope your calculations prove to be true." He said to her.

Roisin got up and asked Malpid before she went to the television, "You wouldn't happen to have a pencil and a piece of paper for me to write on, would you? I need to do a few more calculations."

He nodded his head as if he knew what she was talking about. "Let me see if I have anything in my room." He left and quickly returned with the pencil and paper. "There's only so much trust you can put in numbers, you know that, right?"

"I know. I just want to get a feel for my competitors. That's all."

Roisin sat down and prepared herself for the show. Caesar and Claudius came on and talked about the importance of the scores in regards to sponsors, but reminded the audience that no one should be counted out no matter what the score is. Caesar didn't appear to be too convincing on that point. He tried to emphasize that any tribute could win, even if they had a low score. Claudius agreed with Caesar stating that no tribute should be ruled out based on their score. However they did go back to the point that a majority of the Victors scored at least above a 7. They talked about how anything above a 10 was virtually impossible. They never saw an 11 or a 12 during their entire time hosting the show. The anthem of Panem played and then the show officially started.

Roisin wrote down the scores for each of the tributes. The Careers from Districts 1, 2, and 4 all scored between 8 and 10. Tributes from District 3 each scored a 4. Bonifant managed to get a 3. Stephin shook his head. Roisin's heart beat increased when it was her turn to be called.

"Now for Roisin Jainwynne from District 5." started Caesar. "Roisin got a 5 from the Gamemakers. Not a bad score to get for someone of her stature."

"No, not bad at all I'd say." added Claudius.

Roisin wasn't entirely sure if Caesar's statement was a compliment or an insult. Nevertheless, her plan worked, and she continued to maintain her image of being a fox.

"Good job." said Stephin. "I mean, I think that was a good job. You did get what you wanted."

"Shhhh!" Roisin hushed Stephin, "I'm trying to watch this."

Most of the other non-consequential tributes scored a 3, 4 or 5. She was surprised to see that the girl from District 11, named Rue, received a 7. The boy from District 11, who was named Thresh, scored a 10, making him as deadly as the Careers. Peeta, the boy from District 12, scored an 8 surprisingly. Then it was Katniss' turn. Caesar appeared to have removed all expression on his face. After stating Katniss' name he paused for a little while. Finally he announced that she received an 11. He and Claudius appeared to be ecstatic.

"What did she do?" Roisin muttered under her breath.

"Whatever she did, it really impressed the Gamemakers. I can't imagine what it would be, but I'm sure it had something to do with her volunteering for her sister." said Stephin.

"It's not over, kids." Leftiy said trying to comfort Roisin and Bonifant. Bonifant had a look of defeat in his eyes. "This doesn't necessarily prove anything."

"No, but it does bare some weight when it comes to sponsors." replied Roisin. "That stupid Katniss wowed everyone again." Roisin stopped her train of thought then continued, "Which is why she's going to be the number one target of the Careers." She turned to everyone and exclaimed, "She's as good as dead! They have to get rid of her quickly. There's no other way around it. All they have to do is track her, find her and kill her."

Roisin began to scratch away at her paper and erased a few things on occasions while muttering things to herself. "Okay, I'll assume that all Careers have equal chances of winning. Put Katniss at zero. No, that's ridiculous. She still could win. It's just a lot less probable now. Hmm. Okay, that boy from 10 has no chance whatsoever, that's a certainty. Finally she produced the following probabilities:

District 1 Boy: 8.3%

District 1 Girl: 8.3%

District 2 Boy: 8.3%

District 2 Girl: 8.3%

District 3 Boy: 2.8%

District 3 Girl: 2.8%

District 4 Boy: 8.3%

District 4 Girl: 8.3%

Bonifant: 2.6%

Myself: 3.0%

District 6 Boy: 2.7%

District 6 Girl: 2.8%

District 7 Boy: 2.9%

District 7 Girl: 2.8%

District 8 Boy: 2.7%

District 8 Girl: 2.6%

District 9 Boy: 2.7%

District 9 Girl: 2.7%

District 10 Boy: 0.0%

District 10 Girl: 2.7%

Rue: 3.3%

Thresh: 5.2%

Peeta: 3.5%

Katniss: 2.4%

Roisin sighed. "There. That all seems to make a lot of sense."

Bonifant leaned over and looked at what Roisin wrote. "What did you give me?" Roisin flipped the paper over and pushed Bonifant away.

"I think I saw that. You gave me a 2.6 percent chance of winning, right?" He waited for Roisin's response. He pressed her again, "Right?"

"Yeah, I did. What's your point?" Roisin replied with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Oh, I see. And I suppose you have a better chance of survival than me!"

"I only gave myself an extra 0.4 percent chance over you! I wouldn't necessarily call that much of an edge you twit!" Roisin yelled fiercely.

"Why? What makes you think you can outlast me in the arena? What makes you think you're so much better than most of those other tributes? Tell me!"

"Because I am smarter, that's why!" she reached the top of her voice at that point.

Bonifant calmed down a bit and said, "Smart will only get you so far. Being cunning is one thing, but being a killer is another."

"Bonifant, you are incapable of being either of those." Roisin threw up her arms. "Honestly, you know that between the two of us I have a better chance. Accept it! The way you've been carrying yourself around ever since you've been reaped shows all of Panem that you've no confidence in yourself. None whatsoever."

"Hey! Shut up, you two!" Stephin interrupted. He then grabbed Roisin's paper and took one brief look at it before crumpling it up and throwing it away.

"Those were my calculations! I need those!" Roisin walked to the garbage can.

Stephin extended his arm up to Roisin's chest stopping her from going forward. "And how do you think these percentages will be of any use before The Games? What good are they right now, Roisin? What purpose do they have at this point? None."

Roisin pushed Stephin's arm away and retrieved the crumpled up paper. She smoothed it out the best she could, held it out and said, "See this? This is worth something before we enter the arena. With this I can gather who stands the best chance."

Stephin shook his head, "Roisin, you only know your own strategy for the arena. Sure it's a safe assumption that the Careers will team up, but you don't know everyone else's plans for victory." He paused for a moment, rolled his eyes to the up and left and locked them on Roisin again, "How does that saying go? 'Figures never lie, but liars figure.'?" Roisin looked down at the floor.

Stephin said to her quietly, "How did you get here in the first place?" he paused, "That's right, you relied too heavily on numbers and you got caught. I bet you even calculated the chances of getting reaped. You felt safe, right?" Roisin continued to avoid eye contact.

"You're not safe now, Roisin." Stephin continued. "The odds of lighting striking and killing someone are pretty slim, aren't they? But they still kill people, don't they?" He paused waiting for some kind of reaction from her. "I think I made my point. Now, get some sleep both of you. It's been a long day."

Roisin clenched her paper and continued looking down while storming off to her room. She lay on her bed trying to ignore what Stephin had told her. She knew he was right, but she also keep telling herself otherwise. "He won, but the idiot must have gotten lucky." She whispered to herself. Then she drifted off to sleep.

Sunday came and Roisin trained with Stephin for part of the day. Not a word was spoken to each other for several hours. Finally Stephin broke the silence between them. "Listen, Roisin. You're smart. No one doubts that. You do have a fair amount of confidence in your mind. That's a good thing. Keep to your plan. Just don't get caught up in the numbers. They can only get you so far."

She locked eyes with him and said, "All right. I'll remember that." but she lied, and it appeared that Stephin believed her.

"Good. I think we're done now. Relax for the remainder of the day. Tomorrow is going to be very busy and very tiresome."

Roisin left and went straight for the kitchen. She planned on eating dinner all by herself. Halfway through, she heard footsteps heading her way, so she looked up and saw Malpid. "Hey." he said quietly.

"Hey." she whispered.

Malpid poured out some water and said, "Tomorrow is going to be an important day. You know that right?"

She nodded her head without an expression on her face.

"Listen. For what it's worth, I think you can win this thing. You're definitely the most arrogant tribute I've ever dealt with."

"Some compliment." Roisin interrupted quietly.

"Yes. But your arrogance isn't entirely misplaced." He put his hand under her chin and lifted her face up so she could look him in the eyes. "Remember, if you repeat something over and over again to yourself, you start to believe in it." Roisin looked as though she understood what he was saying. "Believe in yourself, vixen." He removed his hand.

"I'll try." She replied.

He cracked a small smile, "Good. Tomorrow you'll be beautiful and that Katniss girl will be jealous of you."

"I hope so. I'm sick of her." she said with disdain.

"You and me both." Malpid took his glass of water and left.

Roisin sat quietly for a while. She finished eating and went straight to her room. The she did her best to calm her mind for the rest of the day. She lay on her bed and looked up at the ceiling and wondered about what was going on back home. What did her family think of her so far? Were they upset that she got a 5? How did they view her chances at this point? Did they give up on her? Questions kept going in and out of her head for hours until she slept.

Jordy woke her up reminding her to get showered up, change, eat breakfast and get ready for her interview prep. Tonight was a make or break night. This was the night for her to outdo Katniss Everdeen.

Chapter 9 – An Enigma Wrapped in a Mystery

"Heel, toe, heel, toe, heel, toe. Walk with poise, Roisin. Keep your head up, darling!"

Roisin felt disgusted. She was pretty certain that Jordy was more annoying than trying to navigate herself around a room while wearing high heels for the first time. Not to mention the dress added even more problems to deal with.

"Remember to smile, Roisin. A smile will help you win them over."

"Will a smile help shut you up?" Roisin muttered under her breath

"What was that?" asked Jordy who appeared to know Roisin insulted her.

"Nothing. I'll smile." Roisin replied while bearing a wide grin. She continued to walk slowly around the room, still having a tough time managing her balance. She wobbled a little bit.

"Careful, dear. If you worry too much about walking, you'll second guess yourself and you might fall."

Roisin was getting very tired of Jordy. She had to spend four hours with her, and she was somewhere in the second hour. She mumbled, "Heel, toe, heel, toe, heel… woah!"Roisin lost her balance but luckily landed on a couch nearby.

Jordy sighed a bit. "Let's not give up. There's still plenty of time to teach you how to be a graceful lady."

"Yes. Because that's what I want to be… a graceful lady." Roisin replied sarcastically.

"Hey, don't get sassy with me! I'm here trying to help you win over tonight's audience. You want to be the star of the show and not Katniss, don't you?" Jordy folded her arms and let out a "Hmph!"

"Sorry." Roisin shook her head and got up from the couch. "It's just I'm under a lot of stress right now. You can obviously tell this is not my usual attire."

"Well we've got plenty of time to work on that. Just listen to me and focus on what I'm saying."

"Okay. I'll try to do better." Roisin replied and then thought of Katniss, hoping that she would look more ridiculous than her. "I sincerely hope she trips." she thought to herself.

"Let's go over the basics again. Heel, toe. Walk with poise and your head up. Smile. Better yet, keep using your smirk. The audience seems to love that." Jordy clapped her hands twice, "Now start again."

Roisin got a little more confident over the remainder of the time with Jordy. She didn't do a perfect job at any given attempt, but Jordy believed that she would be able to walk up to the stage and down again without a problem. Jordy let out a sigh. "Good enough, dear. Now go to Stephin. He'll help you with your content."

Stephin was sitting on a couch when Roisin entered a room. A chair was positioned in front of him, and Roisin sat on it. He looked at her for a long time. This confused her until he spoke. "I think you already know the angle you're going for, right?"

She paused for a moment and then remembered, "A fox, right?"

"Yes. Now what do we know about foxes?"

"Not a whole lot. They're quiet. I don't even know if they make a sound. I've never heard one. People associate them as cunning, surreptitiousness and smart."

"Right. So we're going to see if we can somehow combine all of those for your interview with Caesar tonight. You're going to do your best to avoid questions, skirt around issues and be as succinct as possible. Think you can do that?"

"I don't see why not."

"Okay, then." He put his hands on his knees, "Let's go over the basics. Tell me about yourself."

Roisin paused for a moment. She was never really asked that question before, at least not on a regular basis. She thought for a few moments. "I don't know exactly how to answer that question. Even if I did know how to answer it, I don't know if I can be succinct."

"It's easy if you think about it, Roisin. What's the most basic thing about you that you can reveal to the Capital? Something so incredibly obvious that you're not telling them what they don't already know. Who are you at the most basic level aside from Roisin Jainwynne?"

"Something that they already know?" she paused after Stephin nodded his head. "Well, I can't tell them about my family. They don't know about them."

"That question will most likely come afterwards. Think a bit harder. What do they already know about you?"

"Well, I suppose the most obvious thing they know about me is that I'm a girl from District 5."

"Yes. So if he says, 'Tell me about yourself.' what are you going to tell him?"

"That I'm just a regular girl from District 5." Roisin replied with certainty.

"Exactly. It's simple. It's succinct. And most importantly, it maintains your mysterious image. Now we just got to try to break down a few of the basics and see if you can answer questions without answering questions. If Caesar presses further, don't give him any more information than you've already given him. You can word it differently if you like. The point is that no one will know you all that well. For example, try this one, 'Tell me about your family.' How would you answer that question?

"Well, I'm an only child and I have two parents, but that's too elaborate I guess."

"You're right. So how would you phrase it differently to simplify it?"

Roisin thought for a bit. "They're fine."

"Good. That's all they need to know." Stephin smiled. "Now, let's go over any other possible questions that he may ask you."

The two of them worked on possible questions and acceptable answers to each one of them. Stephin asked whatever questions he could recall that had been asked to some of his previous tributes. Roisin felt completely confident at the end of the session.

"Good, kid. I think you got this part down just fine. Let's get some dinner before you have to get ready for the interview."

The two of them joined the others at the table. Roisin was a little nervous, so she didn't take a lot of food to eat. Malpid and Leftiy were talking about how excited they were about their outfits. Both of them claimed that the audience would love theirs over the other. Roisin tried to ignore such a petty argument. Jordy and Stephin went over what they did for prepping Roisin and Bonifant. Bonifant remained quiet throughout the meal. Occasionally Roisin thought about apologizing to Bonifant, but she ruled it out like usual. There was no point trying to make amends when they would be enemies in less than a day.

"All right." said Malpid while stretching his arms, "Let's get the two of you ready for your big night. It's time to make a great impression on the Capital."

When she had gotten to the changing room the prep team swarmed around her and guided her to a table. They scrubbed her down and dried her off. Again they were poking and prodding her naked body. They put makeup on her and then left her alone with Malpid.

He circled around her slowly with his hands behind his back and said, "Not bad. In fact, it's great. Now it's time to put on your clothes and do your hair. But!" he paused for a moment, "Be sure your eyes are closed until I tell you to look. Got that?"

Roisin gave a quick nod, "Understood."

Malpid went over and stuck her feet in a pair of boots of some sort. He laced them up tightly. Then he told her to stand up and put a dress over her head. After doing that he sat her back down again and quickly did her hair. Then he stood her up and guided her to a certain point. "Open your eyes, vixen."

When Roisin opened her eyes she was breath-taken. She wore high heeled black books. Her dress was reddish with a white V going down the middle. Her hair was styled into fox ears.

"Oh, my!"

"Here, look at this." Malpid held up a long mirror behind her and it revealed a dark outline and a black tip which resembled a fox's tail.

"Malpid, this is amazing! I can't… I don't… It's just…" a tear went down her cheek. "I'm so gorgeous! Thank you!" she put her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"You're welcome! You're going to be a star tonight. No one's going to stop you. Not even Katniss."

Roisin pulled herself together. "Yes. Not even that stupid girl."

She hugged him again. He whispered to her, "Get going, vixen."

So Roisin went out the door and followed all of the other tributes. There was a line of chairs and the tributes were lined up in numerical order going girl, boy, girl, boy.

Roisin sat down and waited nervously. Moments later Caesar Flickerman hit the stage wearing a blue suit with hair, eyelids and lips that matched. Roisin cringed at his appearance. He warmed up the audience with a few jokes and went ahead and started the show. Roisin took mental notes of tributes while watching the show. The girl from District 1 wore too much of a revealing outfit in her mind. The boy from District 2 was even more intimidating during his interview.

Eventually it was Roisin's turn. Caesar called her onto the stage. "Heel, toe. Poise. Head up. Smirk. I got this." she thought. Roisin walked out and onto the stage wearing her smirk. The audience applauded and many cheered her on. She glanced at them out of the corner of her eye. Then she sat down gracefully and crossed her legs. She turned to Caesar and reminded herself to be as succinct as possible.

"Roisin Jainwynne. Don't you look lovely tonight? Doesn't she audience?"

The audience cheered and Roisin looked down and blushed. "Thank you, Ceasar."

"So, Roisin, you've made it to The Hunger Games. How do you feel about representing District 5?"

Roisin paused for a moment. "I feel good about it, Caesar."

"Wonderful! So, Roisin, could you tell us all a little about yourself?"

"Oh, I'm just your average girl from District 5."

"And what does it mean to be an average girl in District 5?"

"Nothing special."

It appeared Caesar didn't quite know what to make of her answers, but he was quick to recover himself. "I see. So what is family life like for an average girl in District 5?"

"It's good."

Caesar paused for a moment. "Is there anything you would like to tell your friends and family back in District 5?

"Hello, District 5." Roisin gave her smirk and waved. The audience laughed a bit.

"I see… So, Roisin, the Gamemakers gave you a sore of 5. How do you feel about it?

"I'm fine with it." Roisin shrugged it off and darted her eyes about thinking it would make her look more mysterious.

It looked as though Caesar knew this was going nowhere. In any event he went on. "Tell me what you think of the Capital. I'm sure you're enjoying every moment of it!" The audience applauded.

This was a dangerous question. Obviously she couldn't tell them her true feelings, nor should she be too succinct. An answer came to her quickly, "It's a wonderful place, Caesar! I love it here!" she faked her enthusiasm the best she could. Apparently the audience bought it and clapped again.

"All right, Roisin. I've got one question left for you. What's the one trait that you believe will help you the most in the arena?"

"I'm intelligent!" Roisin said confidently.

"Ladies and Gentleman, Roisin Jainwynne, the sly girl from District 5!" He held up her hand and helped her out of the chair. Roisin walked off with the smirk on her face. The audience cheered her on.

When Roisin sat down she let out a huge sigh. She couldn't focus for the next few minutes and thought about how the interview went. She believed that she kept up her image of being mysterious, and she was glad she let the Capital know of her intelligence. It had to be worth something to a sponsor.

Roisin finally snapped out of it when the boy with the crippled foot went on the stage. She couldn't help but feel pity on him. Then she reminded herself that his death was necessary for her victory. When Rue hit the stage she also felt bad for her because she was too young. Then Thresh sat down for the interview, and she cringed a bit. He looked as though he could crush her with one hand.

Katniss came on the stage. Roisin felt nothing but contempt for her. "Look at her, spinning around in that dress and acting like a complete fool." she thought. "Does she even have any substance to her?" Katniss concluded by saying that she was fighting for her sister, Prim. When she said that, Roisin remembered that there was one redeeming quality about her.

Caesar then let her leave the stage and introduced Peeta. The two of them seemed to hit it off rather well, joking back and forth. At the end of the interview Caesar asked Peeta if he had a girl at home. Peeta replied that there was one, but she didn't notice him until recently. Caesar pressed him further and he said that the girl he had a crush on came with him. The audience was in shock.

"Oh no!" Roisin thought to herself. "This changes everything!"

Part II Natural Habitat

Chapter 10 – Pawn

Roisin immediately turned to Katniss to see her reaction to Peeta's proclamation of his crush on her. Katniss appeared to be genuinely surprised by Peeta. Her assumptions were correct when she saw them interact on the roof the other night. Peeta was definitely into her, and Katniss was oblivious the entire time. "What are the odds now?" she wondered. The anthem of Panem played in the background and anger mixed with jealousy rose up in her. Katniss and Peeta were now going to be serious contenders for victory. Roisin maintained her image up to this point, but thanks to Peeta it appeared that it may be all for nothing.

All of the tributes headed to the training center lobby and crowded at the elevators. Roisin's mind was on factoring in the events of the day into her calculations. When she got into the elevator she gave a quick glance at everyone else riding on it. One of the tributes headed up with her was Katniss, who appeared to have a blank stare on her face. Perhaps she was still letting the news sink into her. Roisin looked away from her, and when the elevator reached the 5th floor she got out quickly.

She rushed straight for her room and grabbed her paper with all of the percentages on it. She scratched out several scores and came up with the following calculations:

District 1 Boy: 8.3%

District 1 Girl: 8.3%

District 2 Boy: 8.3%

District 2 Girl: 8.3%

District 3 Boy: 2.6%

District 3 Girl: 2.6%

District 4 Boy: 8.3%

District 4 Girl: 8.3%

Bonifant: 2.4%

Myself: 2.9%

District 6 Boy: 2.5%

District 6 Girl: 2.6%

District 7 Boy: 2.7%

District 7 Girl: 2.6%

District 8 Boy: 2.5%

District 8 Girl: 2.4%

District 9 Boy: 2.5%

District 9 Girl: 2.5%

District 10 Boy: 0.0%

District 10 Girl: 2.5%

Rue: 3.3%

Thresh: 5.4%

Peeta: 4.1%

Katniss: 4.1%

She sighed and quietly said to herself, "Tonight helped Katniss by 1.7 percent. Unbelievable. That stupid girl may owe her life to Peeta. I wish this whole thing was some kind of ruse, but it can't be. Katniss wasn't aware of what Peeta was going to say, that's for certain. Maybe all six Careers will gang up on the two of them. That is a possibility, but I highly doubt it. She may be just as cunning as I am." She stopped and thought for a moment. "No. She can't be as smart as me. That's incredibly unlikely. She may look smarter than most of the other tributes, but she's nowhere near as intelligent as me."

"Dinner time, dear! You don't want to be starving before The Games start tomorrow!" exclaimed Jordy in her usual high-pitched voice.

Roisin shook her head and cried out, "I'll join you all momentarily!"

"Well you better hurry. They're going to replay the interviews after a few minutes."

"Good. She thought to herself. Maybe it'll reveal a few things that I didn't take into consideration."

Roisin got up and walked out to the dinner room. She looked around and did her best to figure out what food would help her most before she went into the arena the next day. After sitting down at the table, the quiet, brunette girl poured out a drink for her. She wondered why she hadn't seen the girl over the past few days. Maybe she wasn't paying much attention to her and was too focused on other things to take notice of her. Roisin assumed that the girl was the maid as well. After all, Jordy definitely didn't seem like the person who would voluntarily make a bed. Roisin thanked the girl for pouring the drink and began to listen to the conversation.

"I don't know about you all, but I'm really, really sick of District 12 now." said Stephin with scorn. "This night completely backfired on us. Where are we going to get sponsors now? Not to mention, Bonifant, you're a lost cause. Your interview went so poorly I can't imagine anyone backing you."

"Hey, stop it!" interrupted Leftiy, "That's no way to talk to him! He needs your support right now."

"Support?" Stephin chuckled a bit, "Here's my support, don't find a way to die in the first three hours." Bonifant looked away from Stephin after he spoke.

Stephin turned his focus over to Roisin, who was in the middle of eating a baguette, "At least your interview went over well. I've never seen Caesar so perplexed in my entire life. Good job, girl. The audience loved your clandestine nature." He sighed a bit, "But that damn Katniss girl stole the night again thanks to Peeta's crush on her. Maybe others will find a way to kill her. Perhaps you could find a way, Roisin."

Roisin looked past him, "Killing her would be rather cathartic."

"Well, then, I suggest you find a way to do it." Roisin nodded her head.

After everyone was finished eating and talking about their hatred for District 12, they went over to the television and turned it on to watch the replay of the interviews. Roisin was pleased with her performance. She looked confident, beautiful and mysterious all at once. She got a chance to watch all of the other tributes that she overlooked as well. Bonifant did look pathetic, which wasn't surprising to her anymore. Eventually Katniss came on.

"If it wasn't for Peeta, she would be just another broad spinning around like a fool." said Jordy with her arms folded.

"He certainly saved her." added Malpid shaking his head.

Finally Peeta came on. They witnessed his instant rapport with Casesar again. Then after his profession of his crush on Katniss, the cameras panned to her face. There it was. Genuine surprise. No one could be fooled into thinking it was otherwise. After that Stephin turned off the television. No one spoke for a long time.

Finally Jordy chimed in, "Well, The Games are tomorrow. It's been a pleasure working with the both of you." She started to walk to her room, but before she entered it she turned around, grinned and said, "May the odds be ever in your favor you two." Then she went inside her room.

Stephin leaned towards Roisin and said, "May I have a word with you in private, Roisin?"

"Sure, I guess." Roisin didn't know exactly what he could possibly want to talk about.

Stephin led her to his room and they sat down on his bed. He looked at her and said, "Okay, so I think you know exactly what to do tomorrow. You know. Your strategy. But I want to go over a few things with you to help you to win. Are you open for ideas?" Roisin nodded her head and was willing to take any advice that he was willing to dispense.

"First off, I'm not joking when I say that you are the smartest tribute I have ever mentored. Because of that, I know that you have a great chance of survival. Remember, lay low. I don't want you to run into that bloodbath at the Cornucopia. Just run away from it as soon as the gong goes off. Find water, and find it quickly! Live off nuts and berries as much as you can if there are any. You seem to know the difference between edible and poisonous ones. Keep yourself on the move as well. Remaining stationary may not work as well as you might think. If you are careful enough you can steal from other tributes when they least suspect it. Careers tend to have a strategy of hoarding their food and supplies. If it comes to the point when you are completely starving, find a way to steal from them. It may take a while, but you're smart enough to figure out a way to obtain food from them. Above all, Roisin, don't rely too heavily on numbers. There may come a point where it will backfire on you, and it could end you. Got that?"

"Got it." Rosin replied quietly.

"Good. You can do this. Believe in yourself." He hugged her briefly and said, "I wish you the best of luck and I look forward to seeing you as a victor. Now get to bed."

Roisin retired to her room. She lay down and looked up to the ceiling and processed the events of the day. Her mind went from her performance straight to Katniss and then to Peeta. Then it was back to Katniss spinning around and around. She couldn't get that image out of her head. Katniss infinitely spinning and winning the hearts of the Capital. Then she saw fire rise up around Katniss and the number eleven flashing inside the fire. Roisin tried so incredibly hard to focus on something else that would hopefully get Katniss out of her head.

Her mind switched over to the probabilities that each tribute had of surviving. Roisin thought that maybe she gave some of the minor tributes too much weight. Perhaps Roisin could have more than a 2.9 percent of survival. Maybe the Careers stood less of a chance of victory. Maybe she thought too highly of Rue. Perhaps Thresh had a better chance than she thought. Rosin kept shifting her body trying to find a more comfortable position to sleep. But her brain kept getting racked over probabilities that each tribute had of winning. Her mind also went over different scenarios and possible arenas. So Roisin got up and decided that she needed to pay another visit to the rooftop.

She followed the path she took a few nights before and made sure that she was quiet again. After closing the door to the roof securely she took in the fresh air. She slowly walked around a bit taking in the view of the people who would soon get their entertainment from watching children kill each other off. Roisin was sickened by the idea. Suddenly she sensed someone nearby. No. There were two people, one boy and one girl. She looked around a corner. There they were again, Katniss and Peeta.

A quiet exchange was shared between the two of them. Peeta said that he wanted to be more than a piece in the Capital's game. Roisin pondered over that comment for a moment. "Maybe we all really are just some kind of piece in a game that perpetuates the Capital's power over the Districts. What an astute observation, Peeta!" she thought. Then their voices rose a little bit, but Roisin couldn't make out what they were saying due to the wind picking up. Eventually she heard the sound of footsteps heading her way, so she crouched low behind the corner and the two of them walked by her.

Roisin waited for several minutes after they left and thought about Peeta's comment during that time. Eventually she decided that it was safe for her to go back to her room. When she got there she lay down and had a dreamless sleep.

When she woke up she had a small breakfast filled with carbohydrates and protein. Then she quickly went up to the roof and waited for a hovercraft to take her to the arena. Eventually one showed up and let down a ladder. Roisin grabbed it, and felt an electric shock that held her in place making it impossible for her to move. The ladder lifted her up inside. Malpid was sitting on a chair and Roisin joined him. A tracker was planted inside her arm so that the viewers can see where she is in the arena at all times. It was a painful experience. Malpid and Roisin did not exchange words. Some food was offer for her to eat during the flight so she had some snacks.

The trip didn't take long. The hovercraft landed and the two of them descended to the Launch Room. Roisin looked around and thought to herself that she might never set foot in another room again. Malpid gave her an outfit that was rather heavy on her.

"This should keep you warm when the nights get cold." Malpid told her. "It'll get hot during the day, so you'll have to find a way to deal with the jacket." After dressing her up he said, "Oh! I almost forgot this!"

In his hand was the small amber fox pin that her parents gave her the day she was taken away from them. Her thoughts immediately went to them. She realized that she may never see them again. Then the thoughts of her last conversation with them raced into her mind. She sat down in a chair and a tear went down her cheek. The tear gave way to a cry which then gave a way to complete sobbing. She began convulsing heavily.

"Malpid, I might not see them again!" she cried out between sobs.

"See who?" he asked trying to comfort her and put his arm around her.

"My parents! During my last conversation they told me that they loved me and that they believed in me, but I shunned them because they left me in the Detention Facility without ever visiting me! They gave me this pin as a reminder of my district, of what I am and of them. Now all I can think of are those hateful words I told them." she continued sobbing. "What do I do now? There's no way for me to apologize! I'm not coming back to make things right between us! They'll never know how sorry I am and how much I love them!" Roisin continued sobbing.

"Hey, hey, hey, you'll come back and apologize to them directly. I know you will." Malpid said calmly.

"You don't know that!"

"No. But I do know that if you aren't able to come back, I'll apologize to them on your behalf." He said quietly.

She pulled herself together. "You'd do that for me?"

"I'll do it in person. I promise." He held her hand when he said that. "Okay?"

"Thank you." Roisin said softly and wiped her tears away. A countdown began to start, letting her know that she had to get on the launch pad. She put on her pin and said, "Well, there's no point in avoiding the inevitable."

"You can do this, Roisin. Keep to your plan because I think I knew what you were talking about when you brought up Johanna Mason. She's a good inspiration for you."

Roisin stepped on the pad, and a see through cylinder came down to surround her. Mapild appeared to say "Goodbye", so Roisin waved hesitantly back to him. Then she was lifted up.

"Ah!" she thought to herself. Her eyes took a while to adjust to the bright sunlight.

Then the voice of Claudius Templesmith boomed throughout the arena. "Ladies and Gentleman, let the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin!"

Chapter 11 – Bloodbath

Roisin looked around at her surroundings quickly. There was a lake and, most importantly, a forest. Unfortunately, she couldn't tell what was behind the Cornucopia. Roisin thought to herself that the forest would be her only option. The remainder of the 60 seconds was used to determine the safest point of entry into the forest. She hoped that the other tributes would overlook her. A majority of them would most likely run for the weapons at the Cornucopia. At least the Careers would.

Roisin turned back to the Cornucopia which was a giant golden horn in a shape of a cone with a curved tail. The mouth alone was around 20 feet high and about 40 yards away. The ground was flat leading up to it. All around and inside the Cornucopia were various items that would be of use for survival. If Roisin sprinted as fast as she could towards the forest while the other tributes were sprinting the 40 yards towards it that would hopefully put around 80 yards away from them. She believed that there would be about an additional 150 yards to her point of entry into the forest. It was uncertain how fast everyone else was, but she knew she was pretty quick. Roisin gave herself a 92 percent chance of survival if she executed her plan.

Adrenaline was coursing through her body as she waited with anticipation, making sure not to leave her pad until the time was up. Doing otherwise would blow her to bits before the whole thing started. She crouched down towards to Cornucopia and tried to control her breathing. Five… Four… Three… Two... One… A gong rang out loudly.

"_Run, Roisin!_" she thought. She immediately sprinted towards the forest. It didn't sound like anyone running in her direction. There was no time to look over her shoulder to verify that. "Don't look back, you could die." Roisin thought as she entered into the woods and ran deep inside it. "Keep running, Roisin. You're not safe until at least a few more minutes of running." She jumped over trees that had fallen and skirted around boulders while sprinting as much as possible. Eventually she slowed to a jog. Minutes later she found a place where she felt it was safe enough to stop. Roisin slowed to a halt to catch her breath.

A few moments later, she realized what to do. "Water!" she thought. "Get to water fast!" Roisin noticed that the land was slopping downwards, and she believed that a source of water would likely be at the bottom of it. After maneuvering between pine and deciduous trees on her way down, she made it to the bottom. Unfortunately she was wrong. Thinking quickly on her feet, she decided to turn left, still hoping that water was nearby.

While continuing her previous pace Roisin heard a series of booms in the afternoon sky. She counted each of them as she slowed to another stop. "Eleven. Eleven are dead and that means thirteen of us are left." Roisin whispered to herself. She sat down on a tree stump to think momentarily. "Did Bonifant make it?" Suddenly she was taken aback by the question. Did she really care if he was alive? Did it really matter to her? He was nothing to her. At least she thought she tried to keep him at a distance, so why should she miss him? She shook her head and thought to herself, "He's probably dead. If he's not, he won't be alive for much longer anyway."

Roisin began walking, making every attempt to be hidden and conceal her tracks. Fortunately all of those years of robbery paid off. Although she didn't find any food to eat, she wasn't hungry due to all that she ate before The Games. Part of Roisin wished that she was able to run quickly enough to the Cornucopia to get a survival kit of some sort. Then she concluded, "Stephin is right. Avoiding the bloodbath was my best chance for survival. I can always find a way to steal from another tribute… that is if I can somehow find another tribute."

Roisin took a moment to slowly look around her. She realized for the first time that the arena was rather large, and the chances of running into another tribute outside the Cornucopia were rather slim. On television, every arena seemed so small. Perhaps that was just the way it was portrayed on the screen. There was always a tribute on the camera, so it was likely that an arena could appear much smaller than what it really was.

The forest was alive with chirping birds and insects. The only other noise was her footsteps. She took some comfort in that. She was not one to be paranoid, so long as she was confident in her chances of not getting caught. "Water's no going to simply come my way." she thought, so she continued her quest.

Eventually the sky grew darker and owls started to hoot, so Roisin found some bushes that she believed would conceal her that night. All she had to do was arrange it so the bush looked untouched by anyone. That wasn't too difficult of a task. The night was cool, and Roisin silently thanked Malpid for the outfit. Once she positioned herself, she heard the anthem of Panem play. She looked up in the sky and waited for the victims to appear after the seal of the Capital. Then the faces lit the sky. Girl from District 3, Boy from District 4, Bonifant (which sent a chill up her spine), both tributes from District 6, both tributes from District 7, Boy from District 8, Both tributes from District 9 and the Girl from District 10. The Capital seal reappeared with a musical flourish to end the night.

Roisin looked down and whispered, "He really is dead." Bonifant's death made her feel even more uncertain about how she treated him. She didn't have any attachments towards him when he was alive, but should she have treated him as if he was beneath her? No matter how bad she felt, she kept justifying her actions towards him. It was logical for her to distance herself from him anyway. At least that's what she always came back to. "He was an enemy, not an ally. He would have been a liability more than a help. At some point he had to die off. Perhaps I should be glad that someone else killed him instead of me." She thought that last statement shouldn't be as comforting as it was, but given the circumstances, that was as positive as it could get.

A few more questions came to her. "How is it that the Career boy from District 4 die and not the crippled boy from District 10? He couldn't have gotten away from the Cornucopia with a weapon or anything. He couldn't have been fast enough to make it to forest, could he? Who would have killed the boy from District 4 anyway? Why would a career eliminate him at this point? Did someone get a lucky kill? No matter what the boy from 4 died and the boy from 10 managed to live. Perhaps that's a good thing. There's one less trained killer in the arena and another person that will die soon enough."

Before going to sleep she reminded herself to come up with some calculations for the remaining tributes. After adjusting the calculations she recalled from her paper, she came up with the following percentages:

District 1 Boy: 12.5%

District 1 Girl: 12.5%

District 2 Boy: 12.5%

District 2 Girl: 12.5%

District 3 Boy: 4.0%

District 4 Girl: 12.5%

Myself: 5.0%

District 8 Girl: 3.5%

District 10 Boy: 0.0%

Rue: 5.5%

Thresh: 7.5%

Peeta: 6.0%

Katniss: 6.0%

Roisin decided that she should try to keep her calculations to be either whole, half, or quarters percentages. "Strange that the percentages would increase so much for the Careers after one of them died. I supposes with the death of the boy from District 4 that leaves one less Career to possibly stab the others in the back. A lot of people died today, that's for certain." she reflected.

Suddenly something came to her, "That dumb girl, Katniss made it through the day after all. She must have had Peeta to keep her alive. There's probably no way she could have done it on her own when the Careers would most likely be after her. I wonder what would have happened if Bonifant had a crush on me. Would it have changed the dynamics in the arena, or would I have brushed it off? I probably would have been as shocked as Katniss, and I would have to go along with the story. Then Peeta's proclamation would have been perceived as a desperate attempt to get sponsors."

"Eleven. Eleven children died for the Capital's amusement. Twelve more of us need to die until a victor is crowned. Here we are. Pieces in the game controlled by eccentric egotists as a reminder that we are their servants. We are at their mercy. They own us and we should be glad that they allow all but twenty-three children to live each year. They should be so kind as to kill off such an infinitesimally small portion of the population instead of everyone. Bastards! They need us as well. Where would they be without any of the Districts? Where would they get their power if District 5 shut down? Who knows what else other Districts do? Food has to be supplied to them by at least one district. What would happen if they stopped feeding the Capital? Anarchy is only nine meals away, they say." Roisin chortled a bit. "I can just see it now: people with ridiculous clothing, makeup and hair fighting other people with ridiculous clothing, makeup and hair. Windows getting broken, tables overturning, people screaming, wigs flying. Say, this is a comforting thought to sleep to." So Roisin positioned herself again, closed her eyes, and relaxed her mind until she fell asleep.

Boom!

Roisin woke and tried to sit up but was prevented by the bushes. She forgot that she was in The Games. Once everything came back to her, she wondered who died. "Who else could it have been besides the boy from District 10? It's surprising that he made it this far anyway. The only other reasonable people would be either the boy from District 3 or the girl from District 8. It'd be a pipe dream if it was one of the Careers, or Katniss for that matter. I wonder what she and Peeta are doing right now. It doesn't matter. They're probably still alive and holding hands. Ack!" she thought.

Then Roisin became jealous. No guy seemed to have an attraction to her before she was taken away to the Detention Facility. She'll probably die without having kissed, held hands or even danced with a boy. Perhaps if she wasn't pursuing academics so hard and plotting ways to steal items she could have come off as someone approachable. It didn't help that she was introverted. She overheard girls discussing their crushes and boyfriends in the hallways between classes. It was all trivial to her at the time. Those relationships weren't going to last, no matter how much the girls insisted otherwise. Few even lasted more than a month. What was the point in starting one if it was so fleeting? They couldn't possibly know what love was anyway. But could Katniss and Peeta know what it is? Maybe. After all, they say love is sacrificial. Peeta would likely lay down his life for Katniss, but would Katniss do the same for him? She sighed. "No time for self-pity, Roisin. This is the arena and survival is your first concern, not what might have been if you played your cards differently." she thought.

Dawn was breaking and there was enough light to start her quest for water and berries. Roisin carefully left the bushes in case someone was nearby listening for something or someone to kill. When she got out she continued her quest. "Keep going, this is not a lost cause. Water has got to be somewhere around here." she kept telling herself. After a few hours of walking she questioned if she was right, or simply in denial. The day grew very bright and very hot. She was surprised she was starting to feel dehydrated. Something got her attention out of the corner of her eye.

"Wait, is that? It is!" she found a bush filled with berries. Roisin took one and moved it around her palm. Then she sniffed it a few times. "Definitely edible!" So she grabbed a fist full of them and stuffed her face as much as she could without eating so much that it wouldn't stay down. She also realized that she might need that bush to survive later on. After making a mental note of its location, Roisin continued her journey.

The day went on and no water was to be found. It was getting darker with the passing of time. She thought, "I need to find water soon, or I my face will light up the sky tomorrow night. No point in trying to take a different path when I made it this far. Water flows downward, so there has to something down here, right? Right? Oh, if the lake wasn't so damn close to the Career camp I would be able to drink my fill every day. It's nice that they have every single advantage over the others. Years of training, brute strength, weapons, water, food and other supplies needed to survive. They probably even have some form of armor. Ugh! Is it even possible to survive The Games when they have those advantages working for them? There's always hope, I guess. Maybe they will all kill each other off before I have to kill one of them. Then there's Thresh. He's as strong as any of them. What to do. What to do."

Once it got to the point when the sun had set she located another bush to sleep in. After replicating the process from the night before she positioned herself to look up at the sky and wait with anticipation hoping that a Career or Katniss died early in the morning. The anthem played and face of the girl from District 8 glowed in the sky.

"Not exactly what I was hoping for." Roisin muttered. Then she thought, "Hoping… hoping? There I go again wishing death on someone I don't even know. On the one hand it is justifiable giving the circumstances, but on the other hand it's complete savagery. Not only is the Capital dehumanizing us, but we're dehumanizing each other. Sick. Just plain sick. Well, I guess it's back to calculating probabilities." After adjusting numbers again she came up with the following percentages:

District 1 Boy: 13.0%

District 1 Girl: 13.0%

District 2 Boy: 13.0%

District 2 Girl: 13.0%

District 3 Boy: 3.75%

District 4 Girl: 13.0%

Myself: 5.25%

District 10 Boy: 0.0%

Rue: 5.75%

Thresh: 7.75%

Peeta: 6.25%

Katniss: 6.25%

"I think these numbers make a lot of sense. Give more weight to the Careers, but the rest of us go up by a quarter of a percent. Except that boy from District 3, who stands less of a chance. Seems very reasonable to me. Kinda sad that I'm just at 5.25 percent, but that's probably true. Stephen's right. I don't know the strategy that everyone is using in this arena. I'm pretty positive the crippled boy from District 10's strategy is hiding under a rock and hoping for the best. All right, Roisin, it's time to go to sleep." She thought to herself. After adjusting her body a bit she became comfortable. The night was colder than the previous one, but she managed to sleep.

When the sunlight hit her eyes she awoke and slowly crept out of the bush. "Okay, Roisin, you have to find water today. There's no other way to survive. Just keep walking and you'll find something." she thought.

Hours passed and the sun got much hotter than the day before. Her mouth had long since stopped producing saliva and became very dry. Roisin's pace gradually got slower. "Keep going, it's around here. It has to be. Dehydration is not an entertaining way to die for the Capital audience."

Once it became midday Roisin got a second wind. "Huh?" she rubbed her eyes vigorously and shook her head. "No… Wait. Yes! No way! I just have to get there!" About 10 yards in front of her was her salvation, a lily pond that was large enough to satisfy her thirst for days. It took all of her might, but once she reached it, she took two handfuls of the pristine liquid and poured it down her throat. She reasoned that she could only down a few gulps at a time, otherwise it might not stay down. She didn't learn that from any of the survival stations, but Roisin thought it was just plain common sense. After staying at the pound for what felt like two hours, Roisin wondered how much longer she could rest. Then came the sound of movement nearby. Roisin quickly got up and ran off. Luckily, she was rejuvenated enough to do so.

After reaching a safe distance away from the noise, Roisin began to wonder who was heading towards the pond. "Okay, so it was just one person. That leaves out the Careers and Peeta and Katniss. So it must have been the boy from District 10, Rue, or Thresh. Would Thresh be that desperate for water, though? He seems like a rather resourceful person. There's no point conjecturing any more. I suppose it's back to finding berries."

Roisin's search did not take long until she came across a bush filled with berries. Again she rolled one around in her palm, smelled it and determined that it was edible. So she grabbed as many as she could that would satiate her without making her throw up. Roisin decided that she was in a relatively safe area, so she crept into the bushes as night fell. The anthem played in the dark sky and no one's face showed up. "Probabilities remain the same." she whispered. Eventually she grew tired and slept.

Sniff, sniff, sniff. "Huh? What's that smell? Oh! Oh, no! Oh, no, no, no, no, no! Run, Roisin! Get out of the bush now and run!"

Chapter 12 – Inferno and Alliances

A huge wall of fire headed westward and straight towards her. Roisin's natural instinct was to calculate the quickest way to get away from the fire. She looked around and noticed that if she headed northwest she would have at least an 80 percent chance of survival. Smoke was started to encapsulate her, so she covered her mouth with the top of her shirt. Just when Roisin thought that her escape would be obtainable, a fireball about the size of an apple whizzed to the right of her. She stumbled and fell to the ground. After recovering herself from the fall, Roisin continued running, but at a slightly slower stride so she could have time to adjust for the terrain and avoid tripping.

Two fireballs whizzed by on both sides of her, and Roisin fell again. She turned around, looked at the inferno and saw that she was almost at the right edge of it. "Just keep heading that direction, Roisin, and you'll be safe."

She got up and continued running, though it was difficult because she was starting to cough excessively. She heard a fireball that was coming from behind, so she quickly fell to the ground, and the ball narrowly missed her. After getting up once again she found that she had a mere 30 yards to go for safety. Three more fireballs flew by her. Roisin stumbled again and her right knee hit the ground hard. Now running was more of a challenge, but there was no time to think about the pain.

Once she made it out and ran a safe distance away from the wall of fire she sat down and thought about why the Gamemakers would set such a trap. Perhaps it was their way to kill her off and the other tribute at the pond. She checked her injuries and had several scratches and bruises. Her knee hurt incredibly badly, but she knew that it would probably not be much of a factor in a few hours. It wasn't as if she hadn't experienced the sensation before when she was stealing an object. All of a sudden she heard a female tribute screaming nearby.

"That's not Rue's scream. It's too deep for a girl of her age and size. Who else could it even be?" Roisin thought about the possible other tributes. After a few minutes she heard something on her left that was splashing in what must have been a nearby pond. "It's Katniss! Why would Katniss be by herself? I thought Peeta was supposed to be protecting her. That doesn't make any sense. I didn't hear a cannon go off while making haste, so she may not have been by herself all along. Then again, I only heard one other person at the other pond. So Katniss must be by herself, but why?"

A few moments later, the fire had stopped and smoke started clearing as the day got a little bit brighter. Although the pond that she heard would have been a great source of water, Katniss was now safely in it, and most likely injured. Maybe she was burned and that she ran into the pond in order to cool herself down. That would decrease her chances of survival by quite a bit. She wondered what purpose the fire could have had. "In and of itself, the fire would be a pointless tool to kill off a tribute by burning them to death. The Capital would certainly know that the Gamemakers were behind it and that they wanted Katniss and her dead. So what other possible goal could the Gamemakers have for the fire?"

A revelation came to her. "Perhaps they want to draw us directly into conflict with other tributes. That means others are nearby and… I gotta go now!" Roisin started walking the best she could northward assuming that the other tributes would be heading east in order to take advantage of any possibly injured tributes that survived the fire. Roisin's knee started to feel extremely painful. She was still coughing from her time running from the fire.

After making it to a reasonably safe distance from where Katniss was most likely, Roisin rested. Once she felt a little better, she started looking for berries. Hours went by until she finally found a bush. She did her test again and determined that the berries were poisonous. In her frustration, she threw them to the ground and started her search again. When it became afternoon, she grew tired from her hunger and decided to take a brief nap in some nearby bushes. Her nap turned into a slumber, and when she woke up it was several hours into the night.

"Great. I threw off my circadian clock, it's dark out, and I'm still as hungry as ever." Roisin tried to remember what direction she was heading, but her disorientation caused her to go southeastwardly.

"Berries, berries, berries and nuts. Nuts would be good. I need some source of protein or my muscles will start to get much weaker and who knows if I'll be able to run at that point. As if having a bad knee wasn't enough." As the night started the end, she found some nuts lying on the ground and she ate quite a bit of them. Suddenly as the day grew a little lighter, she became aware of her surroundings.

"Woah! How on earth did I end up here? This is not good!" Roisin noticed that she was right near a Career camp. Then she did a double take and saw that Peeta was among them. "Why is he with them and not Katniss? Are they using him for something and, if so, what could that be? Furthermore, why are they all asleep? Shouldn't one of them stand guard for protection?" The entire situation made Roisin nonplussed. She noticed movement in the tree above the career camp. It was Katniss and she was sawing away at a branch that had some kind of object hanging from it. When she realized what Katniss' aim fear rose up inside of her.

"Tracker jackers! That's a nest! I need to go now!" She sprinted off in a direction that she hoped the Careers would not take. Whether she was right or not was a different question.

Roisin continued to run as fast as she could, taking into account for every obstacle in her way. Her knee still made it challenging, but she knew that if there if there was enough tracker jacker venom in her she would die. The anthem boomed above her in the rosy sky as she ran. If there was an ideal time for the nest to fall, the anthem would be it.

Roisin managed to make it back to the edge of the expanse leading up to the Cornucopia, so she did her best to get into a position that would be far away from the Career camp. The boy from District 3 was guarding the supplies. Again, Roisin was confused as to why the Careers were making strange alliances with tributes that didn't appear to have much to offer them. Clearly the boy from District 3 had to be more than just a guard.

A distant sound of screaming children soon followed and many were yelling to make a run for the lake. Pretty smart plan considering it would be their best chance for safety. The Careers arrived a short while later with a fair amount of tracker jackers following them. The boy from District 3 heard the commotion and followed the Careers into the lake, but he moved in a strange pattern. He ran for a bit, jumped, ran some more and jumped again, and then went straight to the lake. The pattern wasn't exactly a simple one to follow. His strange dance caused him to get stung by a tracker jacker or two, causing him to scream out.

Four tributes were missing: The girl from District 1, the boy from district 2, the girl from District 4 and Peeta. Roisin reasoned it was for them because they were at the camp under the tree. This meant that her chances of victory would increase quite a bit if her assumptions were correct. Thresh and Rue could possibly be getting stung to death as well, but that was highly unlikely. There was also another person that she almost forgot about, the boy from District 10. He would have no chance of survival if he was in that mix.

A few minutes later two cannons fired off. Eventually Cato appeared with what looked like blood on his sword. He ran to the shore of the lake whether the others collapsed. The poison must have finally gotten to him because he fell to the ground right next to them.

"What exactly is going on here? Who's dead? Who's teamed up with who? Why did they ally themselves with Peeta and the boy from District 3? Why didn't Peeta come back? Did Cato kill him? Where are the girls from Districts 1 and 4? Did the tracker jackers get to them? Why did the boy from District 3 do that bizarre dance?"

Roisin was pensive about all of the strange relations between the tributes. There wasn't a time where the Careers teamed up with non-Careers in all of the years that she was cognizant of The Games. Then there was Peeta who claimed to be in love with Katniss, but apparently led the Careers right to where she was going to be. Then they didn't have the sense to kill him off when his purpose was fulfilled. Nothing was adding up in Roisin's mind.

Just then something dawned on her. "I could slit all of their throats while they're sleeping. It would be easy. I could do it. That would eliminate so many of them. All that would be left are five other people. All of the Careers would be dead. Well, at least three of them would be dead. All I have to do is take one of their weapons and kill them!"

Suddenly the voice Stephin came into Roisin's thoughts, "No, you can't simply be sure. You have to be absolutely certain that you are a killer. That's the difference between Johanna and you. She was a killer all along. You, on the other hand, may or may not be a killer. You've yet to prove to me that you are capable of it."

Roisin's heart sank. Even though the opportunity to kill was right in front of her and their deaths would be certain, she still doubted whether or not she was a killer. "If I doubt myself, the Capital will doubt me. If the Capital doubts me, they won't sponsor me. And if they won't sponsor me, I might not make it in this arena much longer." She let out a deep sigh, "All right. I know what I gotta do."

After believing that the coast was clear she scurried up to the helpless tributes. Each of them breated slowly and had several bumps from the tracker jacker stingers. She looked down at each other them, and carefully examined them to assure herself that there was no chance of any of them waking up. She grabbed one of the knives that was lying next to the girl from District 2 and slowly started to place it on her neck. Her hand trembled severely as she got closer to her victim. "I have to kill her if I want to live. It's her life or mine. That's the way it is. That's the way it's got to be."

Before she pressed down on where the girl's jugular vein was, Roisin had a crisis of conscience. She knew she was no killer. It was one thing to steal an item, but it was a completely different thing to take a life. She carefully put the knife back where she found it and had a mixed feeling of relief and self-pity. "I'm not a killer. I'm not like Johanna." she thought. Then she turned her gaze towards the piles of supplies surrounding the Cornucopia. "But I am myself, and I know exactly what I'm good at."

Roisin carefully walked closer to the Cornucopia and looked at the ground the entire time trying to search for something that made the boy from District 3 jump. Suddenly she noticed something strange about the ground a few yards ahead of her. Looking to the left and right, she observed that it had been disturbed. For quite a long time, she felt perplexed until she thought hard about the significance of the boy from District 3.

"He must come from a district that makes weaponry!" To verify her assumption, she ran back to one of the pads that a tribute stood on before The Games started. Sure enough, it had been removed and taken to a strategic area near the Cornucopia.

"Ha! The boy must have known a way to reactivate the explosives and the Careers let him live because of it. And I thought I was the cleverest tribute in the arena! But why is he still alive if they already know the pattern? Do they really need someone guarding the piles if it is booby trapped? Idiots! Maybe I should have killed them all." she thought.

So she looked at the main pyramid which was covered by a canopy of netting. Then she gazed at the grass in front of the crates, plastic bins and burlap sacks that were scattered around the items. She accounted for the locations of all 24 detonators. After finding one of the patterns she began to jump around and walk about until she reached one of the supply piles. Her knee hurt a bit while she was doing this, but she was determined to steal because it had been so long since the last time she felt that thrill.

She opened the top of a plastic bin and saw a pack, a rope, an aluminum bottle and a small bottle of iodine. Roisin felt certain that they wouldn't notice if any of them were gone, so she put the items into the pack. She then did another dance to a nearby create. There were plenty of fruit and dried meat inside it. "I probably shouldn't take too much from here. Perhaps there are some in other containers." she thought. After looking around there were, indeed, plenty of different containers with food for her to choose from. She stole a few more fruit and dried meat from each and did a dance back out passed the piles.

She then ran quickly outside of the expanse and into the edge of the forest. Roisin felt victorious and gave herself a celebratory meal. She was smart enough to ration her goods. Something occurred to her while eating, "Weapons! I could have stolen at least one weapon from them! Would they even notice if one was gone?" She contemplated it for a moment and then concluded that they probably would considering their brute nature.

Roisin rested for the remainder of the day, and when night fell she climbed high up in a tree that concealed her from all view. She tied the rope tightly around her waist and pack several times and waited for the images in the sky anxiously. Eventually it grew dark and the anthem played. The faces of the girls from District 1 and 4 appeared in the sky. "Odds are getting a little bit better. Time to do some calculating." So she came up with the following percentages:

District 1 Boy: 16%

District 2 Boy: 16%

District 2 Girl: 16%

District 3 Boy: 5.0%

Myself: 7.0%

District 10 Boy: 0.0%

Rue: 7.5%

Thresh: 11.5%

Peeta: 10.5%

Katniss: 10.5%

Chapter 13 – The Unconscious Ones

Roisin woke up late the next day. Judging by the position of the sun, she gathered it was a little after noon. She took out the pack that she had fastened to herself in the tree and slowly chewed on dry meat. When finished she completely untied herself and slowly went down the tree. A pain sensation shot up in her knee, and she fought the urge to cry out in case anyone else was nearby. Then she walked to the edge of the forest to see if the Careers were still knocked out by the tracker jacker venom. None of them moved the entire time Roisin stared at them. She wondered whether to steal some more from the Careers, but ruled it out because she didn't want to take too much from them in case they woke up and noticed. Roisin decided that it was time to find out how to get back to one of the pools and drink some more water.

Along the way she ran across a bush with berries. She took one in her palm, moved it around, smelled it. These were edible and she ate two handfuls and continued her quest. Although there were still five active tributes moving about in the arena, she felt rather safe. It was at this time that Roisin had noticed the wildlife in the arena again. She stopped momentarily to breathe in the air and take in the sounds of birds, small animals and insects. "Why couldn't this be a simple walk in the woods?" she wondered. Not that Roisin had ever experience such a thing because she was limited to staying within the city she grew up in. But she always imagined that a walk in a forest would resemble this.

After taking in the beauty, she continued onward in the direction where she believed a pond would be. The sun got very hot, so Roisin finally took off her jacket. She became conscious about how grubby she felt. Sweat was dripping off of her face and armpits. Her hair was a greasy mess. Her fingernails had mud all over them, and the back of her hands had scratches all over them. Her knee still made it slightly difficult to walk. "Perhaps when I get to a pond I should wash my hands and hair."

Hours passed and it was starting to get dark out. Roisin stopped to eat more dried meat and pondered how long the careers would be unconscious. She remembered how they looked when she was about to kill the girl from District 2. They all had at least three stings. She hoped that each sting would cause one day of sleep, but there was no way of telling that unless she saw them. Roisin decided that it was time to put on her jacket and climb a tree. Again she tied herself and the pack to a branch as securely as possible. She knew that there would be no faces in the sky, so she ate some of the stolen food and waited for the music. The anthem played, and she fell asleep shortly after that.

Roisin didn't wake up until afternoon. She untied herself and slowly got out of the tree. She was resolved to find a nearby pond because her aluminum bottle was almost empty. During her walk, Roisin attempted to find edible berries. Unfortunately she was not able to find any quickly. So to speed up the process, she decided to jog along the way. By this time, her knee was feeling much better.

After jogging for a long time, she heard the sound of a nearby person, who seemed to have troubles walking. "I know who that is!" she thought, "It's that boy from District 10! He'll never be able to catch me." She picked up her pace in case the boy would catch up to her. Then she veered off into a different direction to mislead the boy. After several minutes of the subterfuge, Roisin decided to cut towards what she thought was her original course and ran for an additional hour.

Eventually Roisin felt completely exhausted and slowed down to catch her breath. She came to a tree and sat down with her back against it. Roisin finished off the water that she had. Then she took out an apple and looked at it for a few minutes. She wasn't entirely sure whether to eat it or not. "Red. Red, the color of blood, the color of my hair, the color of my pin." she thought. Then she put down the apple and took off her pin to examine it again.

"Mom and dad. I wonder what they think of me right now. Do they truly believe I can make it out of this Hell? I bet they're watching me. Wait! That's it! If the cameras are on me for all of Panem to see, then they can know I do love them! And if not, Malpid can still deliver the message." She put the pin back on her, pointed to it and mouthed out, "I love you mom and dad." Then she felt an emotional burden lifted from her and visualized her parents watching her as she said it.

She ate her apple, got up and started to run again. Every so often she would stop momentarily to catch her breath and drink some water. This happened until it got so dark until she could see hardly anything. She climbed up a nearby tree, got out the rope and secured herself and the pack to a branch. Then anthem played. "No deaths tonight. I wonder if the Gamemakers have anything in store for tomorrow?" she slept peacefully.

Drip, Drip, Drip, Drip.

"Wha?" Roisin felt very groggy.

Drip, Drip, Drip, Drip, Drip.

"Wait a minute! That's rain! I don't need a pond anymore!" She untied herself and got out of the tree as slowly as possible so that she wouldn't slip and fall. Once she made it to the bottom she found a spot where a fair amount of rain was falling for her to collect it in her aluminum bottle. After filling it up, a thought crossed her mind, "How do I know this is completely safe to drink? The Gamemakers are behind this after all." So she put a few drops of iodine in the aluminum bottle and shook it vigorously. She waited a few moments and slowly drank the water. This process was repeated three more times.

Roisin felt completely satisfied. Her hair was soaking wet, but at least it wasn't grubby anymore. She did her best to wash her hands, but she wouldn't be able to get much of the dirt under her fingernails. That would be pointless anyway. The rain gradually got so cold that Roisin was shivering. She found the nearest bush and made the best possible shelter. "Ah, it's fricking cold! Damn those Gamemakers!" she thought. She knew better than to voice her hatred for them. So she got into the bush and did her best to sleep.

The sunlight hit Roisin's eyes and when they adjusted to the light Roisin noticed something recognizable. "The Cornucopia! It's right in front of me! Talk about a stroke of luck! And the Careers are still unconscious!" Roisin slowly got out of the bush. She ate the remainder of her fruit and dried meat. Then she took a moment to examine her body. "I'm so skinny! I must have lost at least fifteen pounds since this began! It didn't help that I was skinny to begin with." she thought.

Roisin walked slowly to the edge of the expanse and studied the Careers. "So do I go back for more food and take the risk of getting caught by one of them? Well, if I don't go, it'll be difficult to find food again, and I really need more protein. Plus the longer I wait, the more likely they'll wake up and then I'll be dead. All right then, I think this one is a fifty-fifty gamble. I better take it."

Roisin ran as fast as she could up to a few feet away from where a mine was placed. She looked around and found a pattern for her to get to one container that she hoped food was in. So she did a little dance and got up to it. Opening the container, she was disappointed to find that it was empty. "Shoot!" she thought. Then she looked to a pile to her left and figured out a way to get to it. After doing another dance she made it, opened the container and it was full of dried meat and dried fruit. "Success!" she thought. She took just enough food, placed it in her pack, and found a safe way out. After her dance, she sprinted back to the forest and hid in a bush. "Made it!"

Roisin turned took look to the Career camp and saw the boy from District 3 rise. He stretched out and then maneuvered his way to a container that Roisin had stolen from and ate quite a bit of dried meat and dried fruit.

"Whew! That was an insanely close one! I wonder when the others will get up." Roisin started to eat to the point where she was relatively content. She sat and waited several hours sipping some water.

Dusk came and one by one the Careers woke up. When the boy from District 2 woke up he went straight for one of the containers of food that Roisin stole from. "Please don't notice that I stole from it!" she thought as she held her breath.

"What? What's this? Who ate all of this food?" the boy from District 2 asked.

"I didn't notice anything, Cato." replied the girl from District 2 chewing on an apple.

"Marvel, come here and take a look at this." commanded Cato.

The boy from District 1 walked up to it and looked at it briefly. "It looks like some of it is gone. Clove only took that apple from this container today. No one else ate from here today, well that is…" Marvel turned his gaze towards the boy from District 3.

Cato walked up to the boy from District 3, picked him up and yelled, "Did you eat all of that food? Did you?"

"N-no! I didn't eat from that container at all! I swear!"

"Then who did? Who else could it have been? No one could have gotten passed this trap other than us! You had to have done it!"

Clove walked up to the two of them, took out one of her knives and said, "Should we just kill him now? There's no point in keeping him alive. He set up the trap. We don't really need him. Just like we didn't need Peeta after he led us to Katniss." she paused, "Where is he anyway?"

"Don't worry about him. I'm sure he's dead by now. I gave his leg quite a cut." He put the boy from District 3 down. "No. I say we keep him for a while." Cato grinned at the boy. He looked at the sky and said, "Come on. It's hunting time! Let's put on our goggles and find out if Katniss is still alive."

"I call dibs on killing her." said Clove.

"She's mine, Clove. You can get that redhead from District 5 if she's managed to stay alive."

Clove sharpened her knives, grinned and said, "Not quite as glorious of a kill, but I'll take it." Roisin felt insulted when she said this.

The Careers and the boy from District 3 started walking towards a different area of the forest. When they vanished Roisin stayed in her bush. "Not as glorious of a kill?" Roisin thought, "What does she mean by that? I'm smarter than that Katniss girl! She just got lucky that there was a tracker jacker nest above her and that those idiots were still sleeping when it was dropped on them!"

Roisin felt incredibly unsafe in the bush so close to the expanse. She decided to walk as far away as she could until it was very dark. She climbed up a tree secured herself and her bag with the rope and cursed both Clove and Katniss in her mind. The anthem played and no one's face appeared which was expected. Eventually she slept.

Chapter 14 – Dwindling Resources

Boom!

Roisin woke up startled and confused until she remembered where she was. "Who died? Was it the boy from District 10 finally? Did Peeta bleed to death? Maybe Cato decided to kill that boy from District 3. He should have listened to Clove when she said that. What use is he to them anymore?"

She decided to eat some dried meat and fruit while waiting for their return. Finally they showed up and the boy from District 3 was with them as well. Roisin was disgusted by the boy because of his ashen skin. She didn't recall the girl from District 3 looking like that. Perhaps he had some kind of sickness. She wasn't sure. "That rules out the boy from District 3. So that leaves the boy from 10, Rue, Thresh, Katniss and Peeta. One of those had to have died. It was probably Peeta if the gash is as big and deep as Cato made it sound. He has no chance of winning."

Roisin felt that the tree was the safest place to be at the time. Unfortunately for her, she didn't have a whole lot of food left because she took so little during her last robbery. Not to mention she was basically out of water. "What exactly do you have planned now, Roisin?" she thought to herself.

They decided to go to sleep after their night of hunting tributes down. Roisin felt that she had better rest and wait for them to make the next move. Hours passed until they woke up. Then they went to containers that had food in them and ate quite a bit. The Careers didn't say much to the boy from District 3. Instead they seemed to be discussing a strategy while he was playing with a plastic box. Curiosity got the best of Rosin, so she decided to untie herself, go down the tree, hide in some bushes near the edge of the expanse and hear what they were saying.

"That was too easy of a kill." said Clove to Cato. "Are you sure we can't trade? I'd rather kill Katniss than that fox girl from District 5. That just doesn't seem like that much fun."

"Think of it this way, she's clearly not strong like us, but she is clever enough to make it this far. I mean, none of have seen her this entire time in the arena, right?" replied Cato trying to sell Clove the idea.

"I haven't seen her at all." confirmed Marvel while nodding his head.

"Oh, and what makes you so sure she's still alive?" scoffed Clove.

"Intelligence. She said that will help her win. Maybe she's really resourceful. I don't know." Cato replied trying his best to persuade Clove.

"You speak highly of her. You got a crush?" teased Clove. Then she stuck out her tongue at him.

Cato glared at Clove, "Well, I do like redheads."

"Who doesn't?" thought Roisin while she grinned. She was slightly flattered by Cato's assessment of her. Then she remembered that the point of their conversation was who gets to kill her.

Cato pointed to the forest and said, "Hey! What's that? Who'd light a fire in the middle of the day like this?"

"I don't know, but if it's Katniss, you're going to have a hard time trying to convince me of not killing her." said Clove arming herself. Cato and Marvel followed suit. Clove turned to the boy from District 3 and asked, "Do we take him, Cato?"

"I don't think so. He should stay here just in case." replied Marvel.

"But the booby trap's perfect. No one will survive if one mine goes off. No one is smart enough to figure it out!" countered Clove.

"Except for that redhead from District 5!" yelled Marvel.

Cato stopped the argument, "He's coming. We need him in the woods, and his job's done here anyway. No one can touch those supplies."

"What about Lover Boy?" asked Marvel.

"I keep telling you, forget about him. I know where I cut him. It's a miracle he hasn't bled to death yet. At any rate, he's in no shape to raid us. Come on!" Cato said before thrusting a spear into the hands of the boy from District 3. When they entered the woods Cato yelled, "When we find her, I kill her in my own way, and no one interferes."

Roisin observed the situation for about a half an hour. She decided to slowly creep out onto the plain to make sure it was safe. Once she felt secure she ran in quick, small steps towards a pyramid near the Cornucopia. She stopped to get her bearings. Then she placed her feet on a spot. She took a step. Roisin stopped again a looked for another safe area. She made a few little hops occasionally landing on one foot, which caused her to teeter slightly. She jumped over a small barrel and landed on her tiptoes, but she started to fall forward due to the momentum.

"Wahhh!" she squealed as her hands hit the ground. Roisin got up and was relieved that she didn't hit a mine. After regaining herself, she made it to the bulk of the supplies. She took containers with water, crackers from a crate and a handful of apples from a burlap sack suspended from a rope of the side of a bin. "Don't take too much, Roisin or you'll be suspected this time." she thought to herself.

Once she was satisfied with her heist, she did her dance again, and ran into the same spot she came from. She climbed the tree she slept in the night before. Then she looked back towards the pyramids and relaxed.

KA-BOOM!

Roisin nearly fell out of the tree from the explosion. She quickly regained her senses and tried to assess the situation. Smoke rose in the air slowly and three more explosions followed.

"Okay, so what could have possibly caused that explosion? It couldn't have been me, that's for certain. I'm pretty sure no one tried to figure out any pattern leading up to the pyramid. They would have killed me if they had the chance. So what kind of weapon would set off that explosion if no one stepped on a mine?" she stopped and thought for a moment, "An arrow! That's it! But who is good with a bow and arrow and, furthermore, why would they do such a thing?"

The Careers and the boy from District 3 returned. Cato screamed at the sight of it and started pulling out his hair when he saw the wreckage. Then he pounded the ground with furry. The boy from District 3 threw a few stones at the ruins and the Marvel and Clove approached what used to be their hoard. Cato kicked over several empty containers while the others continued to look at the mess. Then he turned to the boy from District 3 who attempted to escape. The boy was easily caught. Cato put him in a headlock and snapped his neck. Marvel and Clove appeared to be calming Cato down. They pointed at the sky indicating something. "Perhaps they believed that whoever tried stealing blew to bits. They're in for a surprise tonight."

A cannon fired for the death of the Boy from District 3. The Careers went to the lake so a hovercraft could take his body. Roisin drank a little bit of water and decided to rest for the remainder of the day. She ate a little bit of food here and there, but still tried to conserve it. "Still skinny. Still managing to get thinner." Then something occurred to her, "There goes my main source of protein! All I have left are nuts!"

Roisin waited for night to fall to see which two tributes died during the day. The anthem played and the faces of the boys from District 3 and 10 appeared in the sky. Then Cato and Clove put on their goggles and went to the woods for their hunt. Marvel also had a lit torch and went with them. "Their deaths were expected I guess. This means I'm in the top eight and I have a chance of returning. I might as well be in the top seven because Peeta is as good as dead. Time for some calculations." She came up with the following percentages:

Marvel: 18.5%

Cato: 18.5%

Clove: 18.5%

Myself: 9.0%

Rue: 9.5%

Thresh: 13.5%

Peeta: 0.0%

Katniss: 12.5%

"Ha! I'm almost in the double digits! This is good news! Maybe I'll get a sponsor." she laughed quietly.

The temperature was extremely cold that night. But Roisin managed to get some sleep. However, she slept rather lightly, and when she got up it was very early in the morning. None of the Careers made it back to their camp. So Roisin decided to go to the edge of the expanse to survey the area. "Maybe there is something left after the explosion. Perhaps I should check it out before they return."

So Roisin ran as fast as she could to the remains of the pile. Among the ashes she found a blade from a knife and a small pot. Then something funny came to her mind. "Perhaps I can find Katniss and convince her to be an ally. Then I'll stab her in the back with this blade!" She laughed out loud for a long time at the thought. Suddenly she heard a noise coming from the drop-off. She looked in that direction, grabbed the items and quickly ran like Hell back to where she came from.

Upon reaching her point of entry, she decided to run an additional hundred yards in a different direction and hid herself in bushes. "What was that noise? Who could have it been? If it was a career I would surely be dead. So, who then? Thresh? Rue? Katniss? Those are the only ones left and it's incredulous to believe that Rue would try and attack me. Maybe I'm hearing things? Maybe? That's a definite possibility. This arena is driving me crazy!" she thought.

Roisin then looked at her recently retrieved items and thought, "What good is a small pot without a fire? And what good is a blade without a handle?" She decided that both of the items weren't as good as she initially thought they were and left them in the bushes. Roisin was uncertain how to spend the day. She felt that she should eat some food and drink some water.

"Okay, so I haven't killed anyone. In fact, I totally botched up that opportunity I had days ago. I am in the top eight. Maybe someone will sponsor me for my cunningness. But now that the supplies have blown up and there's nothing I can take from there, I don't really have a source of protein." She looked down at herself, "My Gosh! What has this arena done to me?" Eventually fatigue got to her and she passed out in the bush.

Boom!

Roisin woke up quickly to the sound of the cannon in the afternoon. Moments later another cannon went off. A line of questioning went through her mind. "Two more dead. That puts me in the top six. So who they could be? Peeta has to be dead by now. It's been days since Cato gave him that cut. It would be highly improbable for him to make it. His wound would have to be severely infected if he is somehow alive. So who else could be dead? It's too early for the Careers to turn on each other. At least I'm pretty sure it is. Thresh is a really tough person. They could have gotten to him. Rue could be dead as well. I'd hate to see her face in the sky tonight, even if her death increases my chances of survival. Katniss could be dead as well. Why do I have the feeling that that's not the case?" she sighed deeply and said, "I guess there's no way of knowing until tonight."

She looked down on her containers of water and food. "Ugh! I have to get more food and water again! There's no way I'm going to make it on this much. All right, Roisin. It's time to search for nuts and berries." Roisin got out of the bush and started heading in a direction she hoped would have berries.

The quest went on into the night, but it was unsuccessful. Roisin did find a berry bush, but they were poisonous. Eventually she had to find a tree to climb and sleep for the night. Once again she waited to see two more faces in the sky. This made her eager, which in turn made her disgusted with herself. The anthem played and the faces of Marvel and Rue appeared in the sky. "Poor Rue. She was too young to experience hardly anything. I guess I still have to do some more calculations." These were the following percentages that she came up with:

Cato: 24.5%

Clove: 24.5%

Myself: 14.0%

Thresh: 19.5%

Peeta: 0.0%

Katniss: 17.5%

She sighed, "Well, I'm finally in the double digits. Aside from Peeta, I am the least likely to win this whole thing. Funny. I wonder if sponsors think I'm in the double digits. Probably not. I bet Cato and Clove have been showered with gifts ever since that explosion. They are the most likely to win. Why do they volunteer for this thing? Only one wins. There can be only one."

Then she thought about what Peeta had said, "One winner. One of the pieces in their game can come out victorious. A glorified piece of The Games. Those that are dead are simply taken away and returned to their district. Some of us will be remembered by the Capital, and most of us will not. Well, unless our deaths are entertaining enough. If I have a choice I'll try not to be amusing to them." Roisin yawned and then fell asleep.

That night she dreamed of her parents when they found out about her stealing the necklace. Their facial expressions froze and grew bigger until she could only see them. Eventually they dissolved and were replaced by Alequinne holding her hand at The Reaping. Alequinne turned to her with complete fear in her eyes and yelled, "They're gonna take me next year, Roisin! They're taking me! Help me, Roisin! Help!" Alequinne turned into the fox pin given to her by her parents. It started to spin slowly and gradually got faster. When it increased in speed it also grew larger. Then it cracked. Malpid appeared in her dream and said, "I promise to tell them, Roisin. If you don't make it, I promise. I'm sure they know, but I'll tell them if you can't make it. Don't worry about it, though. You'll make it and tell them yourself. I know you will. Then his head twisted and turned into Jordy's. "Heel-toe, poise, head up and smile. No, smirk." Stephin eventually replaced Jordy and said, "You're the smartest one in the arena. You can win this!" Bonifant came out of nowhere, pushed Stephin and yelled, "You told me I had no chance! You're right! I'm dead now, and I hope you die, too! Die, Roisin! Die!"

Roisin woke up from the nightmare and saw that it was morning out. "It's just your subconscious, Roisin. Bonifant can't talk to you. He's dead. There's no way for him to really communicate to you." She untied herself, climbed down and looked at her supplies. "Not much here. Might as well eat and drink what's left while searching for more food and water."

While walking around during her search she noticed some smoke off in the distance. "Another tribute doing something incredibly stupid. Maybe they decided that they've had enough and want someone to find them and kill them off. I can't say I blame them. I almost feel the same way. Yet I can't imagine someone who is this close to winning that would want to end their life."

Roisin came across a bush filled with berries and inspected them closely. "These are good, thankfully." She ate two handfuls, but still felt hungry. After eating a third, she continued to look for water. Although she felt full she noticed that she kept losing weight.

After walking for several hours, she ran into a stream. "Finally!" She took out her aluminum bottle, filled it with water, put iodine in it, shook it and waited until she felt it was safe to drink. "All I have to do is stay near this river and maybe I'll make it out alive." Night fell shortly after that and she climbed a tree knowing that no face would appear in the sky that night. The anthem played and then all of a sudden a trumpet blared throughout the sky.

Claudius Templesmith's voice boomed throughout the arena. Roisin thought that he was going to announce a feast in which the tributes would be lured into a bloodbath. Claudius congratulated them for making it into the top six and announced that there has been a change of rules. Two tributes that come from the same district can both be crowned victors of The Hunger Games. In case this didn't sink in to any of the survivors, Claudius repeated it one more time.

"Great." Roisin muttered. "This only applies to Cato and Clove as well as Peeta and Katniss. Now what are the odds?"

Chapter 15 – The Great Heist

Claudius Templesmith's news was like a death sentence for Roisin. "Now the two remaining Careers didn't need to turn on each other. Katniss and Peeta, the two star-crossed lovers, stood a decent chance now. If they weren't already working as a team, they would be now. But then again, would Peeta really be that much of a benefit to Katniss? The only possible good that could come out of their alliance would be the gifts that they would receive."

After debating with herself about what the possible implications of the news meant, Roisin felt that she should do some calculating. At least it would occupy her time until she was tired. These are the percentages she came up with:

Cato: 30.0%

Clove: 30.0%

Myself: 4.0%

Thresh: 10.0%

Peeta: 3.0%

Katniss: 23.0%

"Great… great… great!" Roisin thought, "I can't believe what this has done to me! I stand a slightly better chance than Peeta. My only hope is that he dies quickly. How many days has it been since he's been cut anyway? Now no one is going to sponsor me! The odds are completely against my favor! Think, Roisin, think! What would you do if you were a Career?" she stopped to ponder that and concluded, "I'd find the other team right away and kill them off. They'd be the real threat to victory. Theoretically they could eliminate Thresh and me, but what would the point of that be? Cato and Clove could simply gang up on Katniss while Peeta desperately struggles to save her. After finishing off Katniss, Peeta wouldn't be too hard to eliminate. Clove could take him out easily anyway. All she would need to do is throw a knife into his chest and he's dead. Simple. Okay, Roisin it's time for sleep."

Upon waking up she felt incredibly hungry, so she descended the tree, drank some water and continued her quest for food along the river. It was a hazy morning, which Roisin wished she could have enjoyed. Periodically she would stop to fill up her aluminum bottle when the water got low. She put in some iodine, which was starting to run low, shook vigorously and drank.

The day got incredibly hot and irritated Roisin, so she took off her jacket. Moments later, she discovered a boulder with a bloody streak going down the curve of it. The blood appeared to have been dried for quite some time. It also looked like someone desperately tried to wipe it off. Roisin walked a little further to see if there was any more blood, which there was.

Suddenly she heard footsteps walking in her direction from quite a distance. Roisin quickly ran into the nearest bush and breathed as quietly as possible. It was Katniss. She was looking at the ground while carrying a bow and arrow.

"So, she's the one who destroyed the supplies. That witch! She's behind it all. Maybe that's why she got an 11 from the Gamemakers. She must have hit the bull's eye every single time. But there had to be more than that. Clove could do the same with knives and… Wait a minute! Where's Peeta?"

Katniss walked by, and Roisin stayed in the bushes for a long time after she passed. "Okay, there are a lot of ways I could handle this. I could simply go in a different direction from her, and that'd be the safest. But I can't help but wonder what she's doing. There's no telling if she'll continue going up the river once she's found what's she's looking for though. If she found me, what would I do? She'd shoot me on the spot. Who knows how many people she's killed? Probably not Rue though. Rue is too much like her sister, and she wouldn't want that on her conscience. Maybe when she finds what she's looking for she'll just leave. To follow or not to follow?"

Roisin finally succumbed to curiosity by late afternoon. In order to effectively conceal herself, she stayed in the woods near the river bank. After several minutes of walking she heard the noise of a person struggling to assist someone walking. Sure enough, it was Katniss helping Peeta get inside a cave. Then Katniss gathered vines to cover up the cave.

"Maybe they have food I could steal at some point." Roisin thought. She couldn't make out what they were saying while waiting near the cave. When the cool evening came something caught her attention. It was a parachute falling from the sky in front of the cave, clearly intended for the lovers. So Roisin hid herself quickly and quietly. Katniss appeared just as it was falling down. Once she got the item Katniss undid the tie. It was a pot of some sort.

Roisin looked at her with disgust and jealously. "They get a gift, and I get nothing." Then something dawned on her, "Gifts are going to go up in price at this point. If I were to get anything of any use, it'll be something small like that." Roisin sighed, and then climbed a tree that was a safe distance away from the cave, but was still within visibility.

The anthem played and Katniss appeared to see if anyone was dead. Then Katniss started looking up towards several trees, one of which Roisin was in. Then Katniss put on night vision goggles and guarded the cave. All though she was filled with fear, Roisin made no movement. Eventually Katniss went back into the cave and didn't come out again. Roisin let out a sigh of relief.

"Thresh, Cato and Clove are safe somewhere out there. Who knows what's going on at this point?" As the night went on, the arena felt colder. In fact it was frigid. Roisin was tired from lack of eating, so she managed to get some sleep.

Morning came and the sky was rosy. Roisin smiled a little bit at the atmosphere. She was about to climb down the tree when she saw Katniss picking berries in a nearby bush and smashing them into her pot filled with water. After Katniss went back into the cave, Roisin felt an intense urge to learn what Katniss and Peeta were talking about. So she climbed down the tree and surreptitiously went as close to the cave as possible. She learned that Cato and Clove seem to be continuing their night hunting. Something that Katniss said caught her attention.

"Foxface? She calls me Foxface? My face looks like a fox! You're not the prettiest girl, yourself, Miss Everdeen!" she thought. Then Roisin calmed down, "Well, at least this is helping the image that I have going for myself."

Kissing followed after a few moments and Roisin became envious of Katniss. "At least she has someone to kiss before she dies. I have no one!" she thought. Then Roisin felt sad about the life decisions she made. "I wonder if Cato and Clove are kissing. Nah, they're incapable of love. All they know is how to kill." Roisin came close to laughing at the thought.

Afternoon came and grew hot. Roisin overheard Peeta comment to Katniss that he had blood poisoning. "Good, this might work out for me after all. He will certainly die if she can't save him." Roisin felt she had enough information and decided to leave the area quietly. Before she left she ate two handfuls of berries from the bush Katniss picked from in the morning. Then she went upstream and distanced herself as much as she could from them. Roisin felt as though she had a good idea of where she was in the arena at this point.

Dusk was approaching when trumpets blared once again. It was Claudius Templesmith and he invited all the tributes to a feast at the Cornucopia in the morning. Roisin thought about dismissing the idea until Claudius continued. "Now hold on. Some of you may already be declining my invitation. But this is no ordinary feast. Each of you will find that something in a backpack with your district number at the Cornucopia. Think hard about not showing up. For some of you, this will be your last chance." Then the message ended.

"Maybe it's protein. That's probably what it is. So, should I risk my life to get some dried meats? I've lost an insane amount of weight since I came in the arena. I have to survive. There's no way around it. But if I go when the feast starts, everyone will get their backpack, and I'll be killed either by an arrow from Katniss or a knife by Clove. That's assuming both show up. Katniss definitely will because medicine for Peeta is probably in her backpack. And… Wait! If I go when it starts I'll be killed, but there's no rule about me going there in advance! That's it, Roisin! It's time to head to the Cornucopia and hide inside it. Clever, Roisin, clever." she grinned at her brilliance.

Another thought crossed her mind. "But Cato and Clove hunt at night, so what do I do?" After pondering the question she concluded that they would both probably be sleeping so they would have energy for the feast.

After seeing no face in the sky that night, Roisin decided to make her move in the pale moonlight. She ran as quickly as she could in the direction of the Cornucopia. She jogged for about two hours and took short breaks every once in a while. Roisin made it to the edge of the expanse and caught her breath. Then she scurried while keeping as low as possible. Once she was inside she was proud of her accomplishment. She sat down and thought, "Now all I got to do is stay up all night. That shouldn't be too incredibly hard. It's very cold out."

Roisin came up with many hypothetical situations in her head. "Katniss will most likely show up because Peeta needs medicine to survive. Thresh may or may not show up. He's the wild card. Cato and Clove might show up together to take Katniss out. If Thresh shows up along with Katniss, it might be a little bit of a challenge for the Careers. Clove could simply knife either of them if Cato didn't need to go. Cato or Clove could stand guard and be back up. Hypothetically Thresh or Cato could kill Katniss and then it'll be a toss-up as to who will kill the other. Then again, Katniss could easily arrow Cato, Clove and Thresh. Heck, she could arrow me if I'm not fast enough! I saw what she did to the supplies. At some point Katniss has to run up to the Cornucopia, which means it'll be harder for her to shoot accurately. Okay, so if it came down to Katniss and Clove one could kill the other with their weapons. However, an arrow has a longer range than a bow. If Katniss gets too close to Clove, her bow and arrows would be worthless, and Clove can easily kill her off."

Roisin came up with as many scenarios as she could just to pass the time. She believed that her plan provided herself an 83 percent chance of survival at best and 61 at worst. Roisin also convinced herself it would be a bad idea to steal the other bags because it would draw attention to her. She also determined that although it would be ideal for three people to die at the feast, it would be more likely that two would.

Roisin wondered what Panem was thinking at this moment. Would they be on their edge hoping her plan would work? Her parents would, no doubt. She pictured the two of them eyes wide and mouths open. Alequinne would be uptight as well. She felt that this move might get her a sponsor if it succeeded. Roisin continued thinking while watching her breath in the cold air. The morning became misty and gray.

Once it was just light enough outside the ground started shaking violently and split in two. Roisin got up and a round table with snowy white cloth rose from the ground. Two large black backpacks with the numbers 2 and 11 along with a tiny orange one marked 12. She saw her medium-sized green backpack with the number 5 on it. Once the table clicked into place Roisin ran out of the Cornucopia grabbed it and sprinted as fast as she could into the forest.

Upon entering the woods she heard the sound of someone run near her with heavy footsteps. Roisin quickly climbed up a tree, because she felt that she knew who they belonged to. There was no way of outrunning him. Once she made it as high up as she could Roisin looked down. Below her was the monstrous figure of Cato.

"Well, fox girl. It looks like we finally meet each other. Congratulations on making it this far without getting killed." He smiled a bit while holding spear in one hand.

"Ah, yes. Good to see you too, Cato. I hear you like redheads. You wouldn't mind letting this little one go, would you?" Roisin was clearly trying to lighten the dangerous situation.

Cato blushed. "Normally I would. Then I would have asked you out on a date, but this isn't the time or place."

Roisin felt flattered a bit. "I see. Didn't your mother teach you never to tree a redhead? That makes us twice as dangerous."

"Ha! You don't seem threatening to me." He continued to chuckle. "You know what? I'm not going to kill you. I'm supposed to save that honor for Clove."

"Yes, I overheard that a few times. Apparently I'm not that glorious of a kill." Roisin said, struggling to stay in the tree.

"You heard us talking? You are a clever girl! How close have you gotten to us?" Cato appeared to be impressed.

Roisin looked down on him, glared and said, "Close enough to regret not killing all of you."

"I doubt you could." Cato said haughtily. "Come down from that tree and accept your fate. There's no tracker jacker nest above your head. Guess Clove and I learned that lesson the hard way."

Roisin looked above her to verify Cato's claim. "Damn!" she thought. "I'm not coming down, Cato! You'll have to drag kicking and screaming down this tree!"

"Ha! Nah, you'll have to come down. What do you got in your backpack anyway? Food? You'll need it! You look a little bit skinner than I last saw you, foxy lady? All Clove has to do is touch you and…"

A girl cried out in terror causing Cato and Roisin to look into the direction of the Cornucopia.

"Cato! Cato!" screeched Clove in desperation.

"Clove!" he answered.

Cato sprinted towards the screams. Roisin climbed higher as Cato cried out for Clove again. When she was high enough, Roisin saw Katniss get up to run away from Thresh. Then Thresh ran off in the direction of the tall grass with the bags for Districts 2 and 11. Clove was lying on the ground incapable of moving when Cato got to her. He knelt down next to her and it appeared that they were talking. A few moments later a cannon fired signaling Clove's death. Cato appeared to be livid and ran off towards Thresh's direction. Roisin decided that it was time for her to leave as quickly as possible.

Chapter 16 – It Ended With a Choice

Upon finding a place to rest, Roisin sat down on a boulder and checked the contents in her bag. Sure enough, there were plenty of dried meats and fruit as well as a new bottle of iodine. She ate as much food as she could. Roisin decided to hide in a bush and sleep the rest of the day.

The anthem blared hours later, causing Roisin to wake up. Clove's face appeared in the sky, and then it disappeared. "So, Peeta got the medicine that he needed to survive. But that doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to be of any use to Katniss. It will still be hard for him to walk. Cato is probably hunting down Thresh in the tall grass. I wonder if that's where he's been the entire time. Okay, so let's see how this all pans out for me." Roisin came up with the following calculations:

Cato: 26.0%

Myself: 11.0%

Thresh: 21.0%

Peeta: 10.0%

Katniss: 32.0%

"Wow! This is the first time that a non-Career has a better chance than anyone else in this arena. Shame it couldn't be me. At least I'm back in double digits. I still have a better chance of survival than Peeta."

Suddenly Roisin felt a few drops of water on her. Eventually it began to rain. "Well, this sucks. Might as well eat some more food."

Roisin slowly chewed on a piece of meat and her thoughts turned to Clove. She remembered how Clove sized her up after the parade and how confident she was at the knife throwing station. "Clove. A viscous killer trained at a young age for The Games. Did she have a life outside of training? If so, what was it like? Did anything outside of fitness interest her? What was her relation towards Cato outside the arena? Were they good friends, or did they not know each other at all?"

Roisin continued to eat and think about the other tributes that died in the arena. Most of them didn't leave that much of an impression on her. Eventually her thoughts turned to Bonifant. "What good would he have been if he made it this far? Could he have helped me return home, or would he have been a burden like Peeta is to Katniss?" After a few hours of thinking, she grew tired again and went to sleep.

When Roisin woke up it was still dark out. Rain was still falling down. She saw something stuck on top of the bush she was in. It was a box tied to a parachute, so Roisin quickly grabbed the box. This was an arduous task, but she finally retrieved it. Then she saw what was inside the box. Roisin had a puzzled look on her face and didn't know what to make of the gift initially. In her hand was a dagger with a blade six inches long. On the handle was a fox and on the blade were the words, "Machina Vulpi".

"'Machina Vulpi'. What does that mean? I don't get it. This is a custom dagger. Who would pay so much money to spend it on someone that had such a small chance of winning? This doesn't make sense at all." While she was pensive over the dagger, she chose to eat some of her food.

After piecing everything together it all made sense. "Let's look at this from a gambler's perspective. I have one of the smallest chances of making it outside this arena. So by betting on me, the payout would be exponentially higher than how much the dagger cost. Plus it doesn't necessarily mean that one person had to pay for this dagger. There could have been a huge pool of people betting on me. Maybe a bunch of people from District 5 threw in some money. That's unlikely. In any event they want me to have a weapon for defense. A dagger is probably the best choice because it's easier to handle. As for 'Machina Vulpi', I know that 'Machina' means 'machine' in Latin from the phrase 'Deus ex machina' as in 'machine of the Gods.' So what does 'Vulpi' mean?" she continued thinking about the word and determined that it meant 'fox' because she was playing the role of a fox the entire time. Plus it would explain the fox on the handle as well. Therefore, the dagger read "Machine for the Fox".

Roisin decided that there wasn't a whole lot she could do other than wait out the rain and eat some food. Occasionally she would catch whatever rain she could in her aluminum bottle and did her purification process. She looked down at her hands and examined her entire body. It was still evident to her that she was very skinny compared to when The Games started. In fact, she was starting to look emaciated.

Cato had a five percent advantage over Thresh because he was motivated by vengeance. However, Roisin hoped that Thresh would beat Cato. If it came down to facing either of those two, she felt she would stand a better chance against Thresh, albeit not much. Again, she hated herself for wishing death on someone that she didn't know much about, other than he has a thing for redheads.

She mused about going on a date with Cato after recalling what was said between them. "I wonder what it would have been like. Would he have been a gentleman, or just one of those egocentric guys trying to talk about how great and physically fit he is? Probably the latter, but at least it would have been a good experience. One date before I died. But now if it comes down to it, I have to kill the only man who showed any interest in me. That's irony at its greatest, right there. Well, at least I found out someone was interested in me."

Then she realized that with Thresh and Cato fighting each other off it would mean that she would be down to the final four. Maybe that's why she got the dagger. All she had to do was kill three people. It was strange to her that whoever invested in her overlooked her chance to kill everyone by the lake a few days ago. Urgency would probably make a difference. Besides she couldn't hide forever. There would come a time where she would have to kill at least one person. Roisin cringed at that idea.

Rain started to pour down like it was going to flood out the arena. Roisin occasionally nibbled on a piece of dried meat and wondered if the food would really last her for the rest of The Games. She did her best to look at things from a positive perspective. She thought about returning home and seeing her parents again. She dreamed of visiting Alequinne in the Detention Facility. Then she thought about going back to a normal school. She felt that the Detention Facility did not give her a proper education. It was assumed that criminals were stupid in general. Roisin was a quick learner, so school wouldn't be that much of a challenge when she returned.

Evening came and no one's face showed up in the sky. "Cato and Thresh are probably still going at it. How long could it take for either of them to kill the other? They couldn't have that kind of stamina. Cato may be able to because of his training, but certainly not Thresh." Roisin felt incredibly cold and the rain was not helping one bit. She shivered for hours on end, but eventually got a little sleep.

When it was morning out, it was still raining heavily. Thunder roared throughout the arena and lighting flashed here and there. She spent the day chewing on fruit and meat and drinking water. She looked as if she was anorexic. Roisin grew sick of remaining stationary and decided to slowly get out of the bush to stretch out and move around.

"Maybe they'll kill each other off. That'll be great. Then it would be down to District 12 and me. All I would need to do is sneak up on Katniss and slice her throat. Then I would go after Peeta."

After walking around for several hours she saw a figure of a boy running towards her. Roisin's heart pounded rapidly and she hid in a bush. She got out her dagger because he may have seen her take cover. The boy stopped in front of her bush, and it turned out to be Thresh.

"Hello, District Five. Hiding in the bushes? Come on out, now!" His voice managed to boom over the thunder.

Roisin got out of the bush, tightly gripping her dagger. "Thresh. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be fighting Cato? Is he dead?"

"Dead? No. He's still looking for me in that tall, grassy area. I'm not dumb enough to go where he thinks I'll be."

"Oh… Well, that was good idea." Roisin was trembling, but she did her best to remain composed. "So, you've come to end me?"

Thresh drew a sword and said, "That seems to be the case. But we don't want that. Unfortunately only one of us can go home."

"Yes, that is unfortunate." said Roisin while eyeing his sword.

"You know, five, I'm sick of this. I've killed too many people. But I have to kill more just so I can get home. Then what? Learn to live with this? Have you killed anyone yet?"

"No. I haven't. I… I just wanted to hide and wait for this to all go away. I want to go home, so either I kill you, or you kill me. I believe the latter is significantly more probable than the former."

"What? What are you saying five?" Thresh looked skeptical.

"I'm saying that you have a better chance of killing me, than I do of you."

"All right. Well there's only one way to find out."

Thresh sliced his sword downward, but Roisin dodged quickly out of the way. He then turned to his side with the sword extended. Roisin ducked and tried to stab him. Thresh moved out of the way in time. When he recovered, Roisin had taken several steps back. He lunged forward trying to cut her down, but Roisin avoided the attack again. Thresh yelled out, obviously frustrated. Roisin went around to his side but he tried to strike her down. Roisin rolled out of the way and Thresh tried to stab her in the process. She got up and pointed the dagger at him. Thresh tried striking Roisin's arms, but she moved out of way quickly. Then she ran around him. Thresh was desperately hacking away at the air, but Roisin's agility kept her going.

Then she saw an opportunity and went between his legs. When Roisin got through she managed to give his right Achilles tendon a deep cut. Thresh cried out in pain and lost his balance. She got out of the way. He dropped his sword several feet in front of him. He desperately crawled for it, but Roisin kicked it away. Thresh tried to get up on his knees to tackle her. Roisin avoided his attempt by going around him. Then she jumped on his back and stabbed him where she thought his heart was. He screamed in agony as he collapsed. She got up and looked at him in the eyes as he was taking his final breaths.

"Now... you… have… to live with it!" his eyes fluttered and then closed.

Roisin's mouth opened and she realized the gravity of what he said. She couldn't hear the cannon fire due to the thunder, but a hovercraft came for his body.

"I killed him! _I killed him_! He's dead because of me! What have I done? What have I done? One moment he's alive and talking to me and the next I stab his heart! This isn't real! This has to be a nightmare! That's all that it is! It has to be!"

Roisin felt incredibly sick. So much so that she threw up in a bush. Then she ran away from the scene trying to clear her mind of what she did. She didn't care where she was going, so long as it was far away.

A cannon signaling Thresh's death fired among the thunder. When she finally came to a stop she realized that she could have taken the backpacks that Thresh was carrying. Then she looked for her backpack and it was gone as well. She had left it in her haste, but had no idea where it was. Roisin wondered how she was going to survive the arena now.

She hid in a bush and tried to clear her mind, but all she saw was Thresh's eyes and heard his final words. "How am I going to live with this? I've killed. When I get out of this arena, I will have to have killed at least one more person. Two will be dead because of me. Then I'll go back and be celebrated in my district as a victorious killer."

Roisin kept staring at the sky waiting for Thresh's face to appear. When it showed up it was as if he was looking at her accusingly. Then Roisin kept telling herself that it could have been her face in the sky instead of his. During this time, it stopped raining. She calmed herself and then calculated the odds of survival. These were the percentages she came up with.

Cato: 33.0%

Myself: 20.0%

Peeta: 14.0%

Katniss: 33.0%

"If Peeta died, Katniss probably wouldn't stand much of a chance against Cato. Peeta could be killed by either myself or Cato. However, in order for that to happen, Peeta would have to be separated from her. But if it came down to Cato, Katniss and myself, the best I could hope for is Katniss would kill Cato. Then it would be possible for me to take her out, but she would have to be unarmed, which is improbable.

"Okay, let's think this through again. Say all of us had a 25 percent chance of survival. The best possible outcome would be for Cato and Katniss getting killed. That would leave Peeta and me. I would easily be able to handle him, and I could win this whole thing if Cato injured Katniss enough. But it is more likely that Peeta and Katniss will kill off Cato. Then it would be down to Peeta and Katniss against me. Then what? They could end me once they find me. But realistically I would either have to fight Katniss or Cato, and I don't know if I could truly take either of them. I did kill Thresh, so there's no reason why I couldn't take out one of them.

"The rarest scenario would be for all of us to show up at the same time and for Katniss and Cato to be disarmed. Katniss and Cato would fight each other off, and I would kill Peeta. Once he's dead I could wait for who wins between Katniss and Cato. That person would most likely be injured, and I could finish him. But that is a pipe dream. It won't come down to that. So what's the next course of action?"

Roisin thought deeply about that. Then she came up with a plan. "I need food. It is obvious that Katniss knows what's safe to eat and what is not. All I have to do is find her and Peeta and watch what they eat. Maybe I can kill them if they get separated. Who knows?"

When she had gotten to the cave she heard the two of them talking. Roisin waited for them to leave so she could follow them and see what they were eating.

"I wonder how Foxface is making out." Peeta pondered out loud.

"Oh, she's fine. Probably easier to catch Cato than her." Katniss said peevishly.

Roisin grinned at that statement. "Too bad I'm closer than you think." she thought.

"Maybe they'll catch each other and we can just go him." replied Peeta. "But we better be extra careful about the watches. I dozed off a few times."

"Me, too. But not tonight." assured Katniss.

Roisin walked far away from the cave and hid in some bushes. After a few minutes she went to sleep. Roisin dreamt of Thresh's face. She relived the fight over and over again. Then she saw herself fighting each remaining tribute. Once it got to Cato, however, they dropped their weapons mid-fight and started kissing each other. After several moments of this he started to crush her. She couldn't breathe and she started to panic.

Roisin woke up in terror. She quickly remembered that she was near Katniss and Peeta's cave. Roisin positioned herself so she could see the cave without getting caught. Finally Katniss and Peeta exited the cave. She waited a few minutes until she followed them near the stream, which looked wider due to the deluge of the past few days. She took care not to be noticed, which wasn't hard. Peeta was making a lot of noise while walking on the rocky ground. When the two of them made it to a ground covered by pine needles Peeta's walking was still audible. Roisin followed them quietly for hours. Finally, they came to a stopping point.

Katniss and Peeta quarreled over their next course of action. Roisin overheard them discussing their plans for hunting and gathering as well as their whistles signaling safety. She waited for Peeta to appear and saw him collect berries. There was a pack and a neat pile of roots beside it. He put the berries on a plastic sheet and repeated the process several times. Roisin noted that the time it took for him to return from the picking increased. She also heard his whistling response to Katniss grow fainter. This meant to her that he was venturing off further. Eventually Roisin went up to the pack and opened it. Inside was one apple, two rolls and a small amount of cheese. When she heard him returning she closed the pack and hid herself. Peeta bent down and placed more berries on the sheet.

"This is it. I could kill him off if I really wanted to… Hey, wait!" She patted herself down. "Where's my dagger? What? How could I lose something like that?" she was frustrated with herself. "Well, I got to do something to stay alive. I look completely starving. Okay, take a little bit of cheese and then some berries."

When Peeta left again she opened the pack, picked away at the cheese and took some berries. Then she scurried to a safe spot. She ate the cheese and then looked at the berries. "Something is odd about these. I don't recall them in the training session at all. They're nothing like I've ever seen. But they have to be safe otherwise he wouldn't be picking them, right? I'm so starved right now. Okay so either these berries are safe or they are not. If I choose not to eat them, it doesn't matter whether they're safe or not. But I could starve to death. If they're not safe and I choose to eat them, I die. If they are safe and I choose to eat them, I can live. I am so damn starving. Katniss probably told him what was safe and what wasn't. Okay, so here it goes!"

Roisin touched her fox pin that her parents gave her. Then she put the berries in her mouth, chewed a little bit and let them go down her throat. Seconds later she froze. "Oh, no! I'm going numb. This is not good! I…"

Roisin fell to her knees, hit the ground and took her final breaths.


End file.
